PARIS: Lyon are desperate to get back into the Champions League but their stuttering start to the new year threatens that ambition just as they face serious financial problems and their American owner finds himself making enemies with the French league.
On the field, Pierre Sage’s team took on Fenerbahce in Istanbul on Thursday in the Europa League, a competition in which they are hoping to go all the way.
Domestically, though, Lyon have won just one of their last four Ligue 1 matches and go to Nantes on Sunday having slipped down to sixth, two points outside the qualifying spots for next season’s Champions League.
They also suffered a humiliating defeat in the French Cup on penalties to fifth-tier side Bourgoin-Jallieu last week, but making the Champions League for the first time since 2019/20 has always been the priority for the club that once dominated football in France.
Lyon were recently warned by the DNCG, French football’s financial control body, that they would be relegated at the end of this season without drastic action to reduce debts.
Lyon are part of John Textor’s Eagle Football group, which owns several other clubs including Botafogo, the Brazilian and South American champions.
The seven-time French champions’ debts are such that they were also handed a transfer ban in the January window, although they have still been able to sign Argentina playmaker Thiago Almada on loan from Botafogo.
However, they are having to raise money via sales, and that risks making Lyon less competitive in a domestic environment Textor believes is unfairly dominated by Paris Saint-Germain.
Textor has voiced particular anger at the way a new, cut-price broadcast deal was negotiated by the French league last year, while also taking aim at PSG’s Qatari president Nasser al-Khelaifi.
Khelaifi’s network beIN Sports acquired the rights to show one live Ligue 1 match per weekend in France, with DAZN broadcasting the other games.
“Every league is dominated by a force of a team. There is always one dominant team with seemingly unlimited money, in some cases from oil states,“ Textor said last week in an interview with radio station RMC.
“I was completely shocked in July to be in a meeting of the presidents to discuss viable alternatives on television, and the president of the league (Vincent Labrune) who should have been running the meeting barely opened his mouth.
“Nasser sat and ran the meeting and should not have been in the meeting…and the president of our league just sat there like a lapdog, didn’t say anything.
“The influence from PSG to the league needs to be looked at,“ he added, while also suggesting that the DNCG was under the influence of the Parisian club.
All of those parties hit back at Textor’s comments, with the DNCG calling them “baseless”.
Ultimately Textor’s actions in reducing Lyon’s debts will speak louder than his words, and the American will hope Sage’s team quickly find their form again in Ligue 1.
Player to watch: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia
The Georgian winger could make his PSG debut when the leaders host Reims on Saturday. Signed from Napoli for a reported 70 million euros ($72m) a week ago, he was not part of the squad for last Saturday’s win at Lens.
Kvaratskhelia is also ineligible for PSG in the league phase of the Champions League, so watched from the stands as his new team beat Manchester City on Wednesday and will again have to be a spectator when they go to Stuttgart next week.
Key stats
2 – PSG have lost just twice in 52 Ligue 1 matches since the start of last season
489 – Goalkeeper Anthony Lopes played 489 games for Lyon, putting him fifth on their list of all-time appearance makers. On Sunday he will come up against his hometown club with new side Nantes
8 – Marseille have won eight of their nine away games in Ligue 1 this season
Fixtures (times GMT)
Friday
Auxerre v Saint-Etienne (1945)
Saturday
Monaco v Rennes (1600), Strasbourg v Lille (1800), Paris Saint-Germain v Reims (2005)
Sunday
Le Havre v Brest (1400), Nantes v Lyon, Lens v Angers, Toulouse v Montpellier (1615), Nice v Marseille (1945)
