Coupe de France

Coupe de France is a competition of French Football clubs. Also known as Coupe Charles Simon, Coupe de France has been organized by the FFF - the French Football Federation - since its creation in 1918 and is held every year. The cup is open to all professional and non-professional clubs. Every year, more than 6500 clubs run for the title: non-professional clubs enter first, then the semi-professional and then the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 teams. Coupe de France is a knock-out competition: every games are played over one leg only, and played to a finish - injury time, penalty shootout if necessary.

Since 1927, the President of France has always attended the final and presented the cup to the winning team. Overall, the most successful club in the history of Coupe de France has been Olympique de Marseille with 10 titles. In the 2007-2008 edition, Lyon won the championship match against PSG at Stade de France.
Since 1998, the championship match is held at Stade de France. Winners of Coupe de France get a direct spot in the UEFA Cup for the upcoming season.

A competition for smaller French clubs

The Coupe de France is hard for bigger clubs to win: in recent years, several finalists were playing in Ligue 2 or even in a lower district - non-professional clubs! In 2000, Calais RUFC, a level 4 club, went to the final! However, they lost to FC Nantes, a Ligue 1 club.
Moreover, the French Cup is not a top priority for bigger clubs - such as Lyon, Marseille or Bordeaux - which often play with their reserve players. It "only" gets the winning team a spot in the following year's UEFA Cup!