Olympique Lyonnais has been provisionally relegated to Ligue 2 next summer unless their finances improve dramatically with a transfer ban currently in place and the club’s wage bill under strict supervision by French football’s financial watchdog, the DNCG (directorate national de control de management). The mission brief from now until the end of the current season is simple: sell as many players as possible for as much money as possible while trying to remain competitive enough to qualify for continental competition through Ligue 1 or the French Cup. OL’s debuts are now believed to exceed $530 million and Les Gones are a shadow of the great club they once were when they flew the French Championship flag in Europe.
So how did things get so bad?
The proud history of OL
Lyon are seven-time French champions and won Ligue 1 between 2002 and 2008 with that triple of successes, something that not even Qatar-backed Paris Saint-Germain has achieved in almost 15 years of trying. OL also boasts five Coupe de France titles and has been to two UEFA Champions League semi-finals, most recently in 2020. Les Gones translates into English as The Kids and that nickname is appropriate given that Lyon has for years boasted France and possibly even Europe’s strongest youth academy system with an impressive array of names coming up through the ranks to complement some expertly acquired talent at senior level. Current examples of pure local heroes in Pierre Sage’s current team include Alexandre Lacazette, Corentin Tolisso, Maxence Caqueret and Rayan Cherki.
Lyon’s sharp decline
OL have been underdogs in France for many years, with two costly years away from Europe between the 2022 UEFA Europa League and the current UEL campaign exacerbating what had already been a barren period since the takeover of Qatar by PSG. In fact, since Lyon’s last Ligue 1 triumph in 2008, Girondins de Bordeaux, Olympique de Marseille, Lille OSC and Montpellier HSC have all won the Championnat crown, so blaming the demise of Les Gones on the rise of Les Parisiens (as some try to do). It is not so simple and objectively inaccurate. Previously, the youth academy was the club’s strength, but its role in helping make up for the years following a period of unprecedented national hegemony saw the talent pool essentially become OL’s means of surviving in the modern game. with players sold at younger and younger ages before they could do so. He even truly impacted the first team, which was always a key feature of the Lyon set-up.
Decreasing influence of OL transfers
Previously a model club in terms of smart football business, Lyon fell asleep at the wheel while at the top of European transfer deals and spent big in a bid to close the gap in the growing domestic competition around the time Qatar entered on scene with PSG. This had a crippling impact on Les Gones, who for years have been targeted by comparatively smaller clubs and in more prosperous circumstances in leagues such as the Premier League to pick up top talent at quite affordable prices. Chelsea’s signing of Malo Gusto is the perfect example. from this. The latest example of OL’s truly successful links with South America, previously another source of successful business, was arguably Newcastle United’s Bruno Guimaraes. The proposed arrival of Thiago Almada through Botafogo, owned by the Eagle Football Group, is now in great financial doubt and of dubious origin.
The economic reality of French football
Another brutal reality for Lyon and all other French professional football clubs is that Ligue 1 has suffered an abrupt and alarming fall from grace. Le Championnat has been devastated by a succession of failed or diminished television rights deals with bad blood between traditional channel Canal+ and the LFP (Professional Football League). This deterioration occurred at the worst possible moment, when COVID-19 hit and even PSG, with Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and Lionel Messi, struggled to keep French football in the traditional top five, as results on the continent also they had been affected. The LFP, as well as many club owners past and present, are guilty of horrible mismanagement who simply have not understood what is needed to modernize and grow not only Ligue 1 but also their clubs and, most importantly , your finances. The fact that Ligue 1 is performing well in UEFA competitions at the moment is one of the few positives, along with the steady supply of high-quality talent doing a lot of the heavy lifting with the big boys. of PSG having an inferior performance.
Jean-Michel Classrooms
OL’s former owner for almost 40 years was Jean-Michel Aulas and, while he deserves immense credit for turning Lyon into the powerhouse it was, he must also take some responsibility for allowing complacency to set in before the club’s overdue sale. to John Textor. . The Frenchman now distances himself from the comeback and focuses on the women’s football that he has always defended. Under Aulas, the OL women became a force that eventually surpassed even the men’s team in terms of national and certainly continental success, but it was one of the first assets that Textor attempted to sell upon her arrival. Aulas turned Lyon into something great and significant beyond the borders of France, but also arguably overstayed its welcome when a younger approach could have made the difference and sustained Les Gones from avoiding this heartbreaking current scenario .
Juan Textor
The arrival of the American owner and his Eagle Football Group in 2022 with an initial minority that later became a majority and sparked a bitter and damaging dispute between Textor and Aulas before the Frenchman bid a tearful farewell has coincided with huge financial problems. There is no denying that Lyon were in a bad situation when the deal was struck, as few (if any) French clubs could boast respectable finances then and certainly cannot now. Textor’s plan to salvage his investment in OL appears to be to sell his 45% stake in Crystal Palace and other players from Eagle Football Group portfolio clubs such as Botafogo and RWD Molenbeek to raise much-needed funds.
So what happens if that stake in Palace, which is a minority and therefore less attractive, is not sold soon? The American claimed the DNCG meeting had gone well only to be undermined by the body itself a few hours later and a hastily arranged press conference the next morning exactly allayed the fears. It wasn’t allowed to air as it happened, which is probably because he already publicly embarrassed himself by getting the numbers wrong by doing something similar a few months ago. Based on what was discussed at that press conference, the plan appears to be to sell around six players, but Lyon’s sales attempts last summer have already failed and several players have had moves brutally imposed on them and blamed for the club’s finances. if they didn’t. agree to go. Rayan Cherki will remain the main name but expect to read a lot about Malick Fofana and Maxence Caqueret as well.
Are OLs too big to fail?
No, they are not. Just ask six-time champion Bordeaux, who are now in France’s semi-professional fourth division after having lost their professional status, or even AS Saint-Etienne, ten-time king of France, who were in great difficulty before the arrival this summer of Kilmer Sports Ventures, which saved them from a possible financial collapse like that of Bordeaux, but also FC Sochaux Montbeliard, a two-time winner and youth development powerhouse in recent years. Textor can talk about French football and his own conspiracy theories as much as he wants, but one undeniable truth is that he didn’t (and still doesn’t) understand what he was getting into. The main question now is whether one of the great monuments of French football will have to pay for being in charge at an absolutely critical moment in the club’s long and storied history.
