Lyon Say F*ck You to the WPS, Plus Some Nude Photos
By: Inara | March 6th, 2009I’m going to take a quick break from the men’s team to cover the ladies. Even if you don’t care about women’s football, I advise you to stick around (as opposed to skipping to the bottom) because what’s happening has been rather interesting.
At least Lyon are on target for one European trophy…the Women’s UEFA Cup
So some of you may know that the US has it’s own pro-league for women – the WPS. Right now, they are only seven teams (but another three franchises should be in place by 2010). It’s a fully professional league catering to the most competitive female players all over the world.
What does this have to do with Lyon, you ask?
Well, we’re all familiar with how Lyon always lose their best players because of the lack of competition in Ligue 1. Turns out the same thing is happening on the women’s side. Lyon are pretty much heads and tails above the rest of their competition in Division 1 (the top flight for women). Aulas has over the years collected the best female footballers in France and has recently begun attracting them from abroad. Just last year, Lyon paid the highest ever transfer fee for a female footballer when he brought over Lotta Schelin.
But the problem is the same one the men’s team face – the players are bored with winning every thing. Aulas has his sights set on a European trophy for the women, and indeed Lyon are semifinalists in the competition, with every chance of winning it this year. Unfortunately, it’s not enough.
It’s a bitter blow to lose France’s best female player (voted twice!) in such a sneaky fashion.
In comes the WPS. Just a few weeks ago, they snapped up Camille Abily and Sonia Bompastor, two of Lyon’s best players. Worse still, they signed them after Lyon’s transfer season ended and provided no recompense to the club. Abily and Bompastor chose to leave Lyon midseason because they feared the WPS’s offer wouldn’t be there if they waited until the summer.
This had Lyon really mad, so they published a press release on their official website threatening to take “action.” The WPS said whatever, the players said whatever (albeit in a more apologetic way), and everyone thought the matter was closed. After all, Lyon had no true legal ground to stand on. The reason for that is because women’s football is still treated as an amateur sport in France, and so the neither Abily nor Bompastor had binding contracts with Lyon. The only thing that ties them to OL as footballers is their player registration.
Confused? Let me explain further. How it works for Lyon is this – the players are hired as employees of Lyon, and they spend part of their day training, the other part working. The lucky ones like Schelin are hired only in name – in reality they just collect their paychecks and show up at training. But the rest are pretty much part time players.
It’s not that Lyon are cheap (in fact, Aulas has been wanting to sign his female players to pro contracts for a long time now), but the laws in France don’t allow professional contracts for women footballers because only one or two other clubs could even afford to have pro players. So in the interest of fair play, the FFF decided to keep the league an amateur one so that one club wouldn’t have that too much of an advantage over the others.
But Aulas wasn’t going to take this sitting down. First, he’s convinced the FFF not to release the international transfer certificates of both Abily and Bompastor. Second, Lyon are planning to sue the two women for injury to the club and injury to the image of the sport. Thirdly, Lyon are also iniating proceedings against the two WPS clubs (Los Angeles Sol and Washington Freedom) for unfair poaching.
Ultimately, Lyon will probably end up losing their cases since the courts tend to side with the players, but at the very least, they are taking a stand. Most other clubs tend to bow down to the superiority of the WPS (I’m looking at you, Umea and Arsenal) without kicking up a fight.
If you’re wondering why Lyon care so much, the reason is simple – Aulas. He’s been sinking in tons of money into the ladies team (money that comes from the men’s side) despite the fact that he stands no chance of making a profit. He does it for the love of the game, which he wants to make accessible for both men and women. Say what you will about Jean-mimi, but at least in his case, his heart really is in the right place.
But two good things have come out of this (well, only one if you happen to be female). First, the FFF has agreed to allow women to sign pro-contracts. So though it’s too late for Bompastor and Abily, Lyon have the opportunity to prevent further such losses to occur. Of course, it will be a long time before Division 1 is an entirely professional entity – as things stand right now, Lyon will probably be the only club with pro players, and even then, not all of them will be pros, the rest will be semi-pros).
The second is that some people have gotten so tired of women’s football not getting attention in France that they are taking matters into their own hands. They want to prove that hot women in football isn’t just synonymous with being a WAG – female footballers can be hot too (see below for proof). They hope that photos like these (many of which contain female OL players) will convince more people to show up at games.
The things I do for you guys. I am such a good blogger.
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Tags: Camile Abily, FFF, I just wrote that to get more hits, Jean-Michel Aulas, Ladies, Los Angeles Sol, Lyon, nude women, OL Féminines, Sonia Bompastor, sorry, Team News and Rumors, UEFA Womens Cup, Washington Freedom, WPSSubscribe
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Comments
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Lloris is 100%
Benzema still not sure, will know at matchday
no idea about boumPosted from
United States
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Benzema, Lloris and Boumsong are in the group for Barcelona. Apparently Benzema is still in pain but it is bearable and he will probably play. It doesn’t look good for Boumsong and we will probaly see Bodmer on Wednesday which is good because he will score.
Posted from
United States -
Lyon squad to face Barcelona on Wednesday, March 11:
Goalkeepers: Hugo Lloris, Remy Vercoutre
Defenders: Francois Clerc, Jean-Alain Boumsong, Cris, Lamine Gassama, Fabio Grosso
Midfielder: Jeremy Toulalan, Mathieu Bodmer, Jeam Makoun, Kim Kallstrom, Juninho, Miralem Pjanic, Ederson, Cesar Delgado, Anthony Mounier, Kader Keita
Forwards: Karim Benzema, Yannis Tafer, Frederic Piquionne
Boumsong, Lloris and Benzo on the list. Good news before Barca.
Posted from
United States -
When does Keita’s contract expire? It hurts to think that Remy could’ve been our right-winger right now.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
good to see Yanis in the list of Strikers. Hopefully if benz has to come over ( heaven Forbid ) tafer can get something going and a bit more confidence against one of the best teams in the world.
Anyone remember last year when we faced Barca in the Gerland and Remy came in the final ten minutes, i – along with everyone else were like “WTF”, cause we hadnt seen Remy play and didnt know better…Remy came in and made some good movements, made puyol work…made a bit of an impression. maybe the same will happen this time.
Posted from
United States -
John, Keita signed last year a 4 years contract. It will expire at the end of 2011. We have to admit than once in while he can be a genius let’s hope it will be on wednesday!
Posted from
United States -
Well that genious we surely haven’t seen often..that “¤%&(/&” could have scored 3 goals a match hadn’t he been so “#¤%& up.
Posted from
Norway -
2 days to go before seeing if Lyon’s season is a failure or a kind of success.
Benzema will definitely play.Posted from
Japan -
Hi Inara,
I thought you’d like to see this:
http://www.seethecup.com/footballers/fluminense-signs-fred-ex-lyon/
Posted from
United States -
Boumsong said “So far so good, I am operational!”
Posted from
United States -
Alan: Thanks. And I agree: I watched some old footage when he was at Lille and I remember his brilliance in the African Cup. I was sure he’d regain his old form after the cup, but don’t know what happened.
Posted from
Costa Rica -
why couldnt we have faced Sporting Portugal instead?
Posted from
United States -
lefutur, because we took matchday 6 for granted and didn’t attack bayern. hubris at its best.
Posted from
United States -
Thanks for the link, Bruno! To be honest, I feel sorry for Fluminense. Just wait until Fred throws his first tantrum.
Lefutur, I feel your pain. We were so stupid! And so close too! It’s not like Bayern dominated the match from start to finish.
Anyway, there will be a match preview up in the morning.
Posted from
United States -
I believe in a qualification tonight despite the injuries. As I said, Lyon can’t afford to be eliminated from the CL, or the season would be overall disappointing. As usual, it will mainly depend on Juninho’s form of the day. From the first free kick we will know if he can score a free kick during the game or not.
If he can’t put it on target, we are screwed… Sad to put it all down to God-Juni, but he is our main asset for this game. If he is in a good day, Barca will have to avoid giving fouls in their last 30 meters which will give more freedom to our attackers.Prediction… 2-2
Posted from
Japan -
This match gonna kill me. I’ve also promised to everyone that if OL win I will go to church every sunday..:)
Posted from
Norway -
JMA must whip-out the checkbook and stop this in it’s tracks:
http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germany/2009/03/11/1149530/bayern-munich-will-replace-franck-ribery-with-michel-bastos-reporPosted from
Costa Rica -
is there going to be a game blog today on the Offside?
Posted from
United States -
Yes, there will be. There was a mix up, which is why the preview didn’t get posted. I’m swamped at the moment, but in a little bit, I’ll have a gameday post up.
SO SORRY, guys!
Posted from
United States -
BY THE WAY:
Due to daylights saving time, if you are in the US, add an extra hour to when the game typically starts. So instead of 2:45, it’ll be 3:45!
Posted from
United States -
Has anyone read about the new ligue 1 proposals? Sounds horrible! End of year playoffs and extra points for attacking play? What I hate about a play off system is that it can often mean that the best team doesn’t win. I sincerely hope this doesn’t happen! The 16 team idea works for me though.
http://goal.com/en/news/90/france/archive/1
Posted from
United Kingdom -
^^ what’s wrong with current points system? I dont understand the desire to get away from that. Are they thinking a playoff would be more “exiting”?
I can understand the logic behind trying to achieve more goals however.
Posted from
United States -
I think we should play
Lloris
Clerc-Cis-Boumsong-Grosso
Toulalan-Makoun
Delgado-Juninho-Ederson
BenzemaSubs-Vercoutre,Gassama,Kallstrom,Bodmer,Keita,Piquionne,Tafer,Pjanic,Mounier
I think the score will finish Barca 2-1 Lyon I think Alves and xavi for barca will score and Ederson for Lyon
Posted from
United States -
Playing Clerc is a gamble but this is Lyons biggest game of the season so its a risk worth taking,he is our bestoption available.
Posted from
United States -
You guys have daylights saving time in the US today? Weird! ALLEZ LYON
Posted from
Sweden
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