Le Classique: A contrast of France's 2 biggest clubs

France's biggest match takes place Sunday, and while 90 minutes is hardly a sample size indicative of a club's standing, this installment of Le Classique is rife with both implications and a glimpse at the gap between the country's two most celebrated sides.

Unlike most derbies, Le Classique is not determined by the proximity between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille, rather by the roles they play in French football.

The capital club is the new favourite, buoyed by Qatari investment and domestic dominance, seemingly secure atop the league by virtue of a cocktail of inequitable resources and the shortcomings of its biggest foes.

On the opposite end of Ligue 1's spectrum is Marseille. A beloved club whose past successes appear an eternity away, fraught with a protracted ownership change that was as curious as the football displayed by the club's form of late.

Marseille is France's biggest club. This is an irrefutable fact, but like most things in football, the landscape is shifting.

The 1960's and 70's were firmly Saint-Etienne's, as Les Verts dominated domestically courtesy of eight titles in 13 years. Nantes was next to flex its muscle before the decade was Marseille's to dominate, where four league titles were paired with victory in the 1993 Champions League final. The turn of the century was Lyon's, where Les Gones won seven domestic titles on the trot to cement the league's most commanding spell.

That configuration changed again upon the arrival of the Qatari Sports Investments and their acquisition of a majority share of PSG in 2011. The capital club have since won four consecutive Ligue 1 titles by an average margin of 16 points, as France's top flight becomes characterised as a one-club league.

The summer of 2012 witnessed the arrivals of Thiago Silva, Lucas Moura, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Marco Verratti, and the league hasn't been the same since.

Financially secure and bored by the ennui of flacid domestic challenges, PSG plays host to a side struggling in every facet. Enter Frank McCourt and Rudi Garcia, with the former inexplicably looking to make a dime in a league short on profits, the latter set for a baptism under fire in the most undesirable of conditions.

Speaking with reporters ahead of Sunday's clash, PSG boss Unai Emery was diplomatic in his assessment at the state of flux at Marseille, saying, "I think it's a good thing that a new investor has arrived at the head of the club to give the team the possibility to develop."

Whether or not McCourt has a positive influence on Olympique remains to be seen - and the doubts are many - though there's no denying that Marseille is a club on the brink of utter collapse.

Garcia's lot sit 12th on 12 points amid a logjam of French sides eyeing both ends of the table. Short on money and neck deep in internal turmoil, Marseille continues to fend off scraps while Sunday's foes drink from a gold chalice of the continent's best players.

Players the likes of Michy Batshuayi, Benjamin Mendy, Georges-Kevin N'Koudou, Mario Lemina, Giannelli Imbula, Steve Mandanda, Andre-Pierre Gignac, Andre Ayew, and Dimitri Payet are sold and replaced by the unwanted or the loaned. Those holes have been poorly plugged with other club's crap, with names like Bafetimbi Gomis, Florian Thauvin, Remy Cabella, and Rod Fanni walking into the starting XI with little to no opposition.

Awful or not, there's no denying Marseille's place in France's top flight. The Arab and African influence working class is countered by the panache and popularity of the nouveau-riche capital club.

Marseille is a supporter's club, for better or for worse. Name another club that has a stand named after a fan like the Tribune Patrice de Péretti, where thousands of the club's Ultras convene in the area bearing its founder's name to both will on their side and intimidate the opposition. Bearing the sobriquet Marseille Trop Puissant (MTP - 'Marseille, All Powerful), the moniker could not be more fitting as the supporters group continues to wield power over the Riviera side. The Ultras have their hands firmly in the club's pockets, and it's unlikely that McCourt can do anything to change that.

Olympique, like the city it calls home, is a club perilously resting on the precipice of massive, sometimes brutal change. A hodgepodge of architecture and ethnic cleavages, Marseille is France's naval connection to Northern Africa, and as a result, the club's squad often reflects the ethnic minorities of the south coast city. The disenfranchised and unspoken for flock to Marseille, where a club reflects the struggles of a city who are Marseillais first, French second.

"Proud to be Marseillais" is a slogan common with both residents of the city and its footballers, and in the club's current state, it's clear that the city needs football as much as Ligue 1 is desperate for a side to test PSG's meddle.

Few have said it better than Emery, who reflected on the composition of Ligue 1 ahead of Sunday's heated clash.

"The league needs good teams and good players. Paris St Germain also need to have strong rivals in the championship."

For the sake of France's top flight, here's hoping it can be Marseille.