It's important to note that starting this season, we have 18 teams instead of 20. Therefore, Ligue1 teams play 34 games instead of 38.
It's also interesting to note that Nantes did this in the last season with 18 teams before we went to 20
How do fans in France view the return to 18 teams? I would assume it’s a welcome change for the clubs and fans because of a less harsh schedule but I don’t know for sure.
I'll talk only for me : I'm glad because we'll play less league games.
I see this as a positive.
Less games is a bit of a bummer, because watching football is fun, but players will be less exhausted, which should means more quality games and hopefully more offensively leaning teams due to the possibility of putting more efforts per games.
Less teams might lead to a tighter competition, which is fun for the intensity of the european/relegation races. As competition rises, it should force teams to improve faster to meet the challenge.
For reference, Nantes was champion in 2000-2001
Textor is probably the worst thing that's ever happened to French football, which says a lot given the amount of incompetent, money hungry halfwits we've had in Ligue 1.
Those US investment funds are much worse for football than state-backed ones, because they're killing every single club they touch with a ten foot pole.