Toulouse coach Alain Casanova has said that, without the arrival of stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva, Ligue 1 would have been consigned to the backwaters of European football.
Casanova will take his struggling side to the Parc des Princes to face Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday with Ibrahimovic, 33, and Silva, 30, likely to be in the hosts' lineup.
Despite the perilous situation of his team, who are just two points above the relegation zone, Casanova told media he welcomed the arrival of such stars into the French top flight, which -- he claimed -- would have otherwise dropped out of the limelight.
"Rather than seeing the bad side of things, you have to see the good," he said. "We're really lucky to have such great players in our league, and if we keep criticising them, sooner or later, they will go to another league, even if Ibrahimovic is at an age where that is perhaps no longer the case.
"They do good things, some other things not so good, but we need to promote our Ligue 1 with players like him. We would become a league like in Belgium. Without being nasty, we'd be a second-tier championship if there had not been the arrival of great players like Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic at PSG."
The duo, who were both brought to the French capital in summer 2012, are among a wealth of expensive talent PSG's owners, Qatar Sports Investments, have invested heavily in since they took over the club in 2011.
Despite having a number of players sidelined by injury, the scale of that investment paid off in allowing coach Laurent Blanc to still field a highly competitive side against Chelsea in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday.
Though the game ended 1-1, making Chelsea favourites to progress when they meet again at Stamford Bridge next month, UEFA president Michel Platini believes the French champions now have what it takes to claim European football's biggest prize.
"I think they have the players to qualify and pull off a surprise," Platini told RMC. "It's a question of details -- things are won and lost by fine margins. You have to control some other things. Paris are ready to win the Champions League, this year or another."