There are so many phrases used in football that long-term lovers of the sport know intrinsically, but those that are new to following the sport might struggle to understand.
If you want to make sure that you’re in the know when it comes to the words and phrases used by football supporters, this is the series for you.
One of the phrases that we’re talking about is ‘Farmers League’, which is a phrase often used to describe a league that is seen as not being overly competitive.
There is a big degree to which this is a term filled with snobbery and judgement, but that doesn’t stop people from using it.
One Club Leagues
More often than not, a league will be referred to as a ‘Farmers League’ if there is one club that wins the title seemingly every season. The phrase is commonly dished out for Ligue 1 in France, for example, on account of the fact that Paris Saint-Germain win the title on a regular basis.
The phrase is used as an insult, often by English football fans, suggesting that PSG can win every week in the French league but then struggle when they come up against superior opposition. It was used as an explanation for why they so regularly used to win their domestic title but struggled in Europe.
Are we the… farmers’ league?
— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@jackpittbrooke.bsky.social) Mar 5, 2025 at 21:21
This notion was finally dismissed in the 2024-2025 season, when PSG won the Champions League and defeated English teams Liverpool, Aston Villa and Arsenal on their way to the final. Even so, not many English fans will have decided that that means that the phrase is now redundant for the French league, instead believing that it was the exception that proves the rule. Similarly, the Bundesliga is occasionally referred to as a Farmers League on account of the fact that Bayern Munich will regularly win the German title. They won it 12 times between the 2012-2013 season and the 2024-2025 campaign, only missing out once when Bayer Leverkusen were the winners.
In terms of where the phrase comes from, the idea behind it is that the players in such a league have daytime jobs, such as farming, only playing football on an occasional basis. Interestingly, when Manchester City won the Premier League six times out of seven between 2017-2018 and 2023-2024, only being stopped by Liverpool in 2019-2020, the phrase was not trotted out for the English top-flight. This might well be related to the fact that the club was investigated for 130 charges of financial misconduct, suggesting that their wins may not have been entirely legitimate, therefore meaningless.