Le Mans was promoted to Ligue 1 for the first time since 2010

Le Mans were officially promoted to Ligue 1 on Wednesday after the French League (LFP) awarded it a 2-0 win in the suspended final match of the season in Bastia.

The club last played in the French top flight in the 2009/10 season and was relegated to the sixth level in 2013 for financial reasons.

In stoppage time, Bastia was leading 2-0 in Corsica when the referee stopped the match after home fans started throwing flares onto the pitch.

Bastia was relegated to the third level National.

The LFP said on Wednesday that the Le Mans victory had been «definitively confirmed», meaning the season ends in the second automatic promotion spot, two points ahead of Saint-Etienne and seven points behind champions Troyes.

Saint-Etienne will face Rodez on Friday in the semi-finals of the play-offs.

The winner of that match will face the sixteenth-placed team from Ligue 1, currently Nice, in the final later this month.

Le Mans is owned by Brazilian investment fund OutField, with Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, tennis star Novak Djokovic and ex-Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa among the minority shareholders.

Published on May 14, 2026