Division 1 1938/39

Division 1 1938/39
master	FC Sète
Cup winners	Racing Club Paris
Relegated	Antibes FC Racing Roubaix
Teams	16
Games	240
Gates	766  (ø 3.19 per game)
Top scorer	Roger Courtois ( FC Sochaux )
← Division 1 1937/38 Division 1 1939/40 →
Division 2 1938/39 ↓

The Division 1 1938-39 was the seventh staging of the professional French football league and the last one before a six-year, war-related interruption. The championship was won by FC Sète for the second time after 1934 .

mode

Eligible were the clubs that had finished the previous season no worse than 14th place, and the two promoted from the second division .

societies

This season the following teams played for the championship title:

• five clubs from the far north (from Lille Olympique and SC Fives , from Roubaix Excelsior and Racing , plus Racing Lens ),
• three from Paris and Normandy ( Racing Paris , FC Rouen , promoted Le Havre AC )
• three from the northeast (defending champions FC Sochaux , Racing Strasbourg , FC Metz ),
• five from the southeast ( FC Sète , Olympique Marseille , AS Cannes , FC Antibes , promoted AS Saint-Étienne ).

Of these 16 teams, nine were among the founding members of the league, who had been continuously represented in it until then: Antibes, Cannes, Fives, Lille, Marseille, Paris, EAC Roubaix, Sète and Sochaux.

Season course

The two-point rule applied ; in the event of a tie, the goal quotient was decisive for the placement.

In the first half of the season, the quartet of ex-champions Marseille, Sète, Lille and Paris, who were also favored before this season, were consistently close to each other at the top of the table, which was joined by new league Saint-Étienne. Surprisingly, the defending champion Sochaux was not only not part of this group, but was even in the relegation zone for many weeks with only two first round victories. It lasted until the middle of the second half of the season, then Olympique Lille - until Christmas 1938 even leaders - said goodbye to the group of title contenders, followed by Saint-Étienne, while the remaining three teams did not let any of their competitors pull away. The decision was not made until May, when Sète overran the newly crowned cup winners from Paris 5-0 and Marseille suffered a defeat in Strasbourg, making FC Sète the second club after FC Sochaux last year to celebrate their second championship. Sochaux was able to work his way up to sixth through an impressive second half of the season.

In the relegation zone there was a three-way battle between Rouen, Antibes and Racing Roubaix in the last third of the season, with Roubaix being the first to be relegated, while the other opponents only knew after the last game day and only with the help of the slide rule that another would be with Antibes The league's founding member had lost its prime. Red Star Olympique and the Stade Rennes UC rose from the second division ; however, it took more than six years before they could play another league game in Division 1 in August 1945 . Incidentally, the unmistakable omens of the World War had already led in September 1938 to the fact that most of the teams had to compete with a better reserve eleven due to a military exercise to which numerous professionals had been called up.

Closing table

RC Paris Roubaix ( RC  +  EAC ) Fives Lille Marseille Lens Antibes Cannes St. Etienne Strasbourg Sochaux Metz Sète Rouen Le Havre

Division 1 venues 1938/39

Pl.	society	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Quota	Points
1.	FC Sète	30th	19th	4th	7th	042:180	2.33	42:18
2.	Olympique Marseille	30th	18th	4th	8th	056:340	1.65	40:20
3.	Racing Club Paris (P)	30th	15th	8th	7th	058:430	1.35	38:22
4th	AS Saint-Etienne (N)	30th	14th	7th	9	046:300	1.53	35:25
5.	Olympique Lille	30th	14th	6th	10	042:380	1.11	34:26
6th	FC Sochaux (M)	30th	14th	4th	12	065:390	1.67	32:28
7th	Racing Lens	30th	11	9	10	051:420	1.21	31:29
8th.	FC Metz	30th	12	7th	11	049:460	1.07	31:29
9.	SC Fives	30th	13	5	12	057:540	1.06	31:29
10.	Racing Strasbourg	30th	10	8th	12	039:430	0.91	28:32
11.	Le Havre AC (N)	30th	11	6th	13	048:590	0.81	28:32
12.	AS Cannes	30th	11	5	14th	047:620	0.76	27:33
13.	Excelsior AC Roubaix	30th	8th	8th	14th	060:710	0.85	24:36
14th	FC Rouen	30th	6th	9	15th	031:480	0.65	21:39
15th	Antibes FC	30th	6th	9	15th	021:540	0.39	21:39
16.	Racing Roubaix	30th	4th	9	17th	039:600	0.65	17:43

Placement criteria: 1st points - 2nd goal quotient

French football champion

Relegation to Division 2

(M)	reigning French champion
(P)	reigning French cup winner
(N)	Newcomers from Division 2 1937/38

Crosstab

	FC Ant	AS Can	EAC Rou	SC Fiv	AC LeH	RC Len	Ol. Lil	Ol. Mar	FC Met	RC par	RC Rbx	FC Rou	AS StÉ	FC Sèt	FC Soc	RC Str
Antibes FC		0-0	3-0	0: 3	1-0	1-0	0: 3	2: 2	1: 1	1: 1	1-0	0-0	0: 4	0: 2	0-0	1: 1
AS Cannes	3-0		2: 1	1: 5	3: 2	2: 1	1: 2	2: 4	2: 1	1: 2	4: 1	2-0	1: 2	3: 2	0-0	1: 1
Excelsior Roubaix	0: 2	3: 5		3: 1	3: 3	0: 1	1: 1	1: 2	3: 1	6: 2	4: 2	1: 1	1-0	2: 3	3: 2	6: 1
SC Fives	4: 1	3: 1	4: 2		7: 3	0: 4	3: 1	0-0	1: 1	0: 1	1: 3	1-0	3: 2	1: 3	2: 4	2-0
Le Havre AC	2-0	3-0	1: 3	0-0		2: 2	1-0	2-0	0: 3	2: 1	5: 2	1: 1	0-0	2: 1	2: 1	2: 1
Racing Lens	1: 1	6: 2	2: 2	4: 2	3: 1		2: 3	2: 1	1: 1	3: 1	0: 2	1-0	1: 2	2: 2	1: 1	1: 1
Olympique Lille	2-0	4: 3	1: 2	1-0	2-0	0: 1		3: 2	0: 2	2: 1	5: 3	3: 1	1-0	2-0	0: 1	0: 1
Olympique Marseille	5: 2	0: 1	4: 2	2-0	0: 2	2-0	2-0		5: 1	5: 2	6-0	1-0	3: 1	1: 1	1-0	1-0
FC Metz	6-0	2: 1	1: 1	1: 3	2: 1	1: 1	0: 1	5: 1		3-0	1-0	2: 2	1-0	0: 2	0: 3	2: 1
Racing Paris	3-0	5: 1	3: 1	2: 2	3-0	1-0	2: 2	1: 1	3: 2		1: 1	3-0	1: 1	3-0	6: 1	3: 2
Racing Roubaix	2: 2	1: 1	1: 1	3: 3	1: 1	1: 5	0-0	1-0	1: 2	0: 3		1: 2	2: 2	1-0	1: 4	2-0
FC Rouen	0: 1	2: 1	2: 2	1: 3	1: 4	3-0	0-0	1: 2	2: 2	3: 1	0-0		0: 2	0: 1	1-0	1: 1
AS Saint-Etienne	1-0	2-0	2: 2	2-0	4: 2	1: 1	2-0	1-0	0: 1	0: 1	5-0	2: 1		3: 1	2: 1	0-0
FC Sète	4-0	3-0	2-0	3: 2	2: 2	2: 2	1: 2	6: 3	5-0	3: 1	2-0	2: 1	2: 1		2-0	2-0
FC Sochaux	2-0	7: 3	8-0	5: 2	8-0	0: 2	4: 1	2-0	0: 1	1-0	3: 1	2-0	1: 2	1: 1		2-0
Racing Strasbourg	2: 1	1: 3	3: 1	3: 1	3: 1	3: 2	1: 2	1-0	0-0	1: 1	2-0	5: 1	1: 1	1: 3	2-0

The master's players

During the season the following 20 players were used (in brackets: number of point games): Domènec Balmanya (28), Marcel Bertrand (5), Michel Brusseaux (30), Charles [Cros?] (7), Albert Clarenc (6 ), Kouider Daho (3), Pierre Danzelle (28), Fernand Darmon (6), Josep Escolà (17), Raymond François (21), René Franquès (24), Dezsõ Korányi (29), Charles Laurent (29), François Mercier (26), Roger Pellegrino (25), Ahmed Salhi (2), Roland Schmitt (26), Roger Simon (3), Camille Teyssonnier (5), Antoine Vassas (3)

Who Sètes scored 65 hits is not fully represented in the literature; only Korányi (27) and Pellegrino (12) have an exact specification.

Most successful goal scorers

Pl.	player	society	Gates
1	Roger Courtois	FC Sochaux	27
	Dezsõ Korányi	FC Sète	27
3	Norbert Van Caeneghem	SC Fives	21st
4th	Heinrich Hiltl	Excelsior AC Roubaix	18th
5	Emmanuel Aznar	Olympique Marseille	16
	Antoine Franceschetti	AS Cannes	16
	Alessandro Frigerio	Le Havre AC	16
	Ignace Tax	AS Saint-Etienne	16
9	Viktor Spechtl	Racing Lens	14th
10	Larbi Ben Barek	Olympique Marseille	12
	Géza Kalocsay	Olympique Lille	12
	Roger Pellegrino	FC Sète	12

See also

• Division 2 1938/39
• Coupe de France 1938/39

literature

• Hubert Beaudet: Le Championnat et ses champions. 70 ans de Football en France. Alan Sutton, Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire 2002, ISBN 2-84253-762-9
• Sophie Guillet / François Laforge: Le guide français et international du football éd. 2009. Vecchi, Paris 2008, ISBN 978-2-7328-9295-5
• Jean-Philippe Rethacker: La grande histoire des clubs de foot champions de France. Sélection du Reader's Digest, Paris / Bruxelles / Montréal / Zurich 2001, ISBN 2-7098-1238-X

Notes and evidence

1. ↑ Beaudet, p. 24
2. ↑ Rethacker, p. 22f.
3. ↑ Beaudet, pp. 25f.
4. ↑ Rethacker, p. 22
5. ↑ Guillet / Laforge, p. 138