China: Lyon’s New Best Friends

By: Inara | January 15th, 2008

It is such a joy to watch Jean-mimi ~~whore~~ market Lyon to the rest of the world.

His latest love affair with China is really just an extension of his nearly decade long admiration of Asia. It may in part be due to his love of cheap labor (he is a businessman after all), but it’s been his goal for a long time now to introduce Lyon to what is a lucrative Asian market. When you see the income generated by clubs such as Milan and Manchester United during their tours in Asia, it’s understandable that Aulas wants a piece of that.

Of course, it will take time to develop a fan base in Asia, especially due to the language barrier (it’s always easier for English speaking teams), but Lyon have already taken some steps to establish a base. First, they’re the longest running participants in the Peace Cup, having been runners up in the 2003 and 2005 edition before finally winning the trophy in 2007.

Though it wouldn’t be appropriate for Lyon to participate in the tournament again (the Peace Cup’s philosophy is that they want to bring together different teams), those in charge of the Peace Cup foundation are in love with Lyon (and with Aulas) and just recently came to Lyon to discuss planning for the 2009 and 2010 editions. The Peace Cup committee has gone so far as to suggest that the 2010 edition take place in France. Also, the Koreans would like to invite the French women’s national team to participate in the Peace Queen’s Cup 2008.

Aulas has also been keeping an eye on China. He encouraged the LFP to hold the Trophée des Champions in China and would have done so had it not been for the LFP having a last minute scheduling crisis. Additionally, he recently formed a partnership with a Chinese Superleague team, Changchun Yatai.

Best Friends Forever…or as long the money keeps rolling in.

His latest venture was inviting the Chinese Olympic team to train at Lyon for a week and pit them against Lyon’s reserve team. It’s not as unfair as you would think - the Olympic team is essentially the U23 team, so it would be kids vs. kids. Anyway, the reason for this is two fold. Lyon will help China develop the technical aspects of football training, something the French are very good at. It is also possible that the most talented of the young Chinese players may be sent to Lyon for further training (aka stealing).

The Chinese team and the Lyon reserves will be playing their first match tomorrow at 8 AM ET (14:00 CET) at the Gerland, and they will face each other again on January 23th at the Plaine des Jeux. In between, the Chinese team will be facing the St Priest CFA. Also, the Chinese team will be presented to the French public before the kickoff of Lyon-Lorient on the evening of the 23rd. Will members of the senior squad be playing in these friendlies? Both Cesar Delgado and Marc Crosas were supposed to play tomorrow in the first friendly, but due to today’s League Cup match being postponed until tomorrow, they won’t be able to take part.

So what will Lyon get out of it? Well, besides the free players, Lyon hope to learn from China in regards to women’s football. As you all know, Aulas is actively developing the female arm of Olympique Lyonnais, and it’s common knowledge that China has one of the best women’s NTs in the world.

And of course, Lyon will be hoping to take advantage of further marketing opportunities. Aulas has also announced that a Chinese version of the official website will be available soon. Personally, I’m kind of lukewarm about that idea - their English site needs a lot of work, and they should also have a Portuguese section available given the amount of Brazilians following Lyon. But what do I know? I’m just a fan.

Oh, and best of all? Aulas has invited the Chinese NT to the eventual inauguration of the new stadium in 2010 since Lyon will be relying on a great deal of Chinese technology in the construction of OL Land.

I honestly have no words.

Aulas is such a cheese.

Anyway, sometimes I wonder if Aulas realizes he might be over committing Lyon. He’s already promised Corinthians that Lyon would play them in a friendly sometime in Brazil this summer (great), and now that a rich investor is building a replica of the city of Lyon in Dubai, Aulas got involved in that project. The Dubai-Lyon city will be complete with a training center for OL (you know, a warm and comfy winter retreat for the club) and an academy, so I would not be surprised to see Lyon play friendlies there as well.