1996–97 French Division 2

The Division 2 season 1996/1997, organised by the LFP was won by LB Châteauroux and saw the promotions of LB Châteauroux and Toulouse FC, whereas FC Perpignan, FCO Charleville, SAS Épinal and Stade Briochin were relegated to National.

22 participating teams

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion or Relegation
1	LB Châteauroux (C, P)	42	20	16	6	54	27	+27	76	Promotion to French Division 1
2	Toulouse FC (P)	42	22	9	11	61	32	+29	75	Promotion to French Division 1
3	FC Martigues	42	17	16	9	54	33	+21	67
4	FC Gueugnon	42	19	10	13	54	47	+7	67
5	Chamois Niortais FC	42	16	17	9	44	36	+8	65
6	Le Mans UC72	42	15	17	10	49	41	+8	62
7	AS Beauvais	42	15	16	11	43	43	0	61
8	Stade Lavallois	42	14	16	12	48	39	+9	58
9	FC Lorient	42	15	13	14	50	50	0	58
10	ASOA Valence	42	17	7	18	48	53	−5	58
11	FC Sochaux-Montbéliard	42	14	15	13	57	47	+10	57
12	FC Mulhouse	42	14	12	16	51	49	+2	54
13	Red Star 93	42	12	18	12	50	48	+2	54
14	Sporting Toulon Var	42	14	12	16	50	57	−7	54
15	Amiens SC	42	13	13	16	44	47	−3	52
16	FC Perpignan (R)	42	11	18	13	38	42	−4	51	Relegation to Championnat National
17	AS Saint-Étienne	42	12	15	15	48	56	−8	51
18	CS Louhans-Cuiseaux	42	13	12	17	39	52	−13	51
19	FCO Charleville (R)	42	10	19	13	37	48	−11	49	Relegation to Championnat National
20	Troyes AC	42	10	18	14	36	42	−6	48
21	SAS Épinal (R)	42	6	8	28	26	75	−49	26	Relegation to Championnat National
22	Stade Briochin (R)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	Relegation to Championnat National

Source: ^{[citation needed]}
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted; (R) Relegated

Promoted to L1 : LB Châteauroux, Toulouse FC
Relegated to L2 : SM Caen, AS Nancy, Lille OSC, OGC Nice
Promoted to L2 : Nîmes Olympique, ES Wasquehal
Relegated to National : FCO Charleville, SAS Épinal
Relegated to lower divisions : FC Perpignan, Stade Briochin (Banned during the season)

#	Player	Club	Goals
1	Samuel Michel	Sochaux	23
2	Samba N'Diaye	Saint-Étienne	19
3	Bernard Bouger	Lorient	18
4	Jean-Marc Ferreri	Toulon	17

v t e Division 2 / Ligue 2 seasons
Division 2 (1933–2002)	1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02
Ligue 2 (2002–present)	2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24
List of French second division champions