Lyon Outside The Offside

By: Inara | June 9th, 2007

A few of my readers have asked me where I get my information from and how I watch Lyon games despite living in the US, where they rarely broadcast Ligue 1. So I thought I’d post a list of essential links for the Lyon fans outside of France (all ten of us).

The sites are in French (unless otherwise stated), but on days when I don’t feel like using my brain to translate the text myself, a handy extension (I use Mozilla instead of IE) google-translates everything into English with a single click. Believe me, that makes life so much easier.

Lyon News:

Official Site - Both in French and English.
L’Equipe - France’s only publication dedicated just to sports.
Football365 - News, and they also liveblog Lyon games.
Foot Mercato - The latest transfer gossip of all major leagues.
Skysports News (in English) - A more reliable site with pertinent Lyon news.
Lyon Capitale - Dedicated to the city of Lyon, with a lot of great interviews and OL articles.
France Football - Great source of information, gossip, and interviews. Thanks to Joffrey for the link.

Lyon Fansites/Forums:

Espace-OL.com - Your source for everything OL. Pictures, graphics, news, history, etc.
Fierdetrelyonnais.com - Another great OL fansite with tons of multimedia.
Official Lyon Forums - Best place to interact with other OL fans…if you know French.
Forum OL - Another popular French OL forum.
Lyon at BigSoccer (in English) - English soccer forums with a small but loyal group of Lyon posters.

Lyon Blogs

Blog Olympique Lyonnais - One of my favorite OL blogs. Great articles and analysis of all things Lyon.
Olympique et Lyonnais - Probably the most popular Lyon blog out there, with up to date information and commentary. I highly recommend it!
French Football at The Offside (in English) - Sam covers all of Ligue 1, including Lyon.
French World Cup Blog (in English) - Laurie deals with the French NT, which includes several OL players.
femmesdefootballeurs - If you have a sick fascination with WAGs (OL included!), this blog is for you.

Lyon Media - Games, clips, etc

Live-foot - The best place to find streams to live games on the internet. Cost: $0. Thanks to Evilo for the link.
MyP2P (in English) - Links to streams on game day. They often have links to OL games. Cost: $0. Note: you need some kind of p2p software installed. It’s not always reliable, and different methods work for different people. I sometimes use Sopcast while others prefer TVants or PPstream.
Live streams on Soccers.fr - Another place to look for internet links. Cost: $0
Setanta Broadband (in English) - It’s reliable, and they broadcast two or three Ligue 1 games per week. They also have archived games, as well as CL and Euro2008 matches. My preferred method for watching Lyon in the states. Cost: $12 per month.
UEFA Video (in English) - For Champions League coverage. You get access to all CL games, past and present, as well as interviews and game previews. Very reliable. Cost: $4 per month.
OL Web TV - Lyon’s official videos. A premium subscription at their website will grant you access to all their media footage, including game highlights, interviews, bonus clips, etc. Cost: €5 per month.
VideoSport (in English) - This site hosts qualifiers for Euro 2008 if you want to see OL players in action for their NTs. Cost: €2.