Fabio Grosso Bitchslaps a Player, Plus Other Lyon Nuggets

By: Inara | April 26th, 2008

Fabio Grosso’s week isn’t getting any better. Last weekend, he was verbally abused by Strasbourg coach Jean-Marc Furlan for being a “piece of macaroni shit.” Today, during Lyon’s 2-2 draw against Caen, Grosso was sent off, the third Lyon player to be red carded this year. Apparently, Grosso - who had already received a yellow card for tackling Yoan Gouffran too enthusiastically during the first half - also gave him a love tap in the tunnels during half-time. Gouffran ran to the referee, who subsequently expelled everyone’s favorite macaroni from the game. Aulas was rather upset and thinks it’s a conspiracy against Lyon, especially because no one witnessed the incident, so it’s Gouffran’s word against Grosso’s. No word yet on whether Grosso thinks he deserved the expulsion or not and what Gouffran said that pissed him off.

Fabio is not having a fabulous time in France

Unfortunately, I wish Grosso had restrained his rather volatile temper. Who knows how long the LFP will suspend him, but there are only three games left to play, and he might end up missing all of them (there are also two potential French Cup matches). Worse, Grosso is Lyon’s only LB, and while Anthony Reveillere can take his place on occasion, he’ll also be suspended from Wednesday’s match against Sedan for too many yellow cards. So who knows what tactics Perrin will come up with for the French Cup semifinal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In more positive news, Karim Benzema’s brace against Caen today has raised his tally to 30 goals for Lyon in all competitions (19 in the league), and 32 goals if you include national team games. He’s three games away from being the youngest ever best scorer in the French Championnat. Not bad, huh?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Monday, OL players will be packing their bags and heading to Evian, where they will spend the next week in peaceful isolation as they prepare for the grueling few weeks ahead of them. Sounds more like a week at the spa, but if it makes the boys play better, I hope they get all the manicures and pedicures they need.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyon have signed Clement Grenier and Yannis Tafer to professional contracts. Both are graduates of Lyon’s academy and currently ply their trade in Lyon’s U16 and U18 teams. I’ve never heard of Tafer, but Grenier has been in the news quite a bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not done with collecting midfielders, Lyon are apparently frontrunners to land the signature of Miralem Pjanic, who would prefer Lyon as a destination as opposed to Marseille, PSG, or a big club abroad. Pjanic has also received a concrete offer from Barcelona and is the subject of heavy interest from Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Valencia, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Napoli, Schalke, Wolfsburg, Fenerbahce, and Fiorentina.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyon’s request to move the date of their French Cup match against Sedan forward one day was rejected by the French Football Federation (FFF). The match, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, May 7th, leaves only two full days of rest before Lyon receive Nancy, who are in third place. Aulas wanted an extra day because Lyon-Nancy is a game that could potentially decide the title, but no one else agreed. Sedan coach Jose Pasqualetti took Lyon’s request really personally:

“Mr. Aulas mustn’t forget that football doesn’t belong solely to him. If he wants to play his B team, we’ll be happy…He’s not the boss of French football. The LFP has also refused to shift our Friday match at Clermont. We’re not crying about it. If he doesn’t want to play, that’s his problem. Despite all the respect I have for Olympique Lyonnais, we shouldn’t be browbeaten. He’s not the president or the pope, he’s just Mr. Aulas, president of OL.”

Lyon didn’t get why Sedan’s knickers were in such a twist since pushing the match back by a day doesn’t affect Sedan. Not to be deterred, Lyon then asked the LFP to shift their league match against Nancy back one day, from Saturday, May 10th to Sunday, May 11th. The LFP also refused their request, saying there was no regulatory reason for the postponement.

Now Aulas is threatening to boycott the French Cup semifinal by either not showing up or by taking a reserve team. Great. Talk about taking the high road.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyon’s stadium plans have hit a roadblock (the first of many, I’m sure). The new secretary of the UMP du Rhône, Michel Forissier, has said that OL Land will cost too much of the taxpayer’s money and that for now, he plans to block plans for the stadium by not allowing the building permits to be filed. The problem is that Decines, the site of the stadium, is currently served by a dinky old tram that can’t sustain huge match day audiences, and the 9,000 parking spaces are hardly enough to accommodate 50,000+ people. The only way to make the stadium more accessible is for the city to extend the metro, but as Forissier says, public transportation is paid by the public, even if the stadium itself will mostly be privately funded.

No wonder French stadia are so far behind…it’s nearly impossible to build them!

So unless Lyon can resolve the transportation situation, Forissier doesn’t intend to approve anything because he’s worried such a traffic disaster will disturb the neighboring communities. He suggested as an alternative that Aulas look into expanding the Gerland’s capacity and that Forissier himself will be happy to sell the stadium to him (which probably won’t be allowed either because the Gerland is classified as a historical monument). He also said that he resents the fact that the stadium is being imposed on Decines and that he doesn’t see how OL Land can possibly be built.

Lyon have angrily responded to Forissier by saying that Project OL Land is progressing as it should and that they plan to do whatever it takes to build their new stadium. Luckily, the opposition to OL Land is a minority, and Gérard Collomb, the mayor of Lyon, is fully behind the project. And we can trust Aulas to ~~bribe~~ convince whoever is necessary to see that Project OL Land gets the green light. However, it looks like the projected completion date of 2010 won’t be happening - 2011 looks more likely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OL Féminines, like their male counterparts, are in the semifinals of the Challenge de France, the women’s French Cup. They will be facing Soyaux tomorrow, and if they win, they will face either PSG or Juvisy in the final. And for the first time ever, the Challange de France will be held at the Stade de France, which is where the Coupe de la Ligue and Coupe de France finals are also held.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lyon have scheduled a friendly in Dubai in the last week of May against Al-Shabab. Since most players will be off getting ready for Euro 2008 or other sorts of international duty, it’s a good opportunity for players like Anthony Mounier, Cesar Delgado, Marc Crosas, etc.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And finally, I’ll be on this week’s Offside Podcast to talk about French football. If you have any topics you’d like me to address, stop by here.