What Will It Take For Lyon to Become a Big Club?

By: Inara | June 25th, 2007

An excellent article was published on Sportsvox which asked whether Lyon fulfilled the criteria of being a “big European club.” It’s in French, so I thought I’d list the main points here in English, with some of my own comments. Let’s go over it, shall we?

1 - Big European clubs have a lot of titles. In this case, Lyon is not a big club. Their successes have only been recent, and their six domestic titles are paltry compared to the silverware clubs such as Juventus have racked up. But don’t despair too much. Chelsea is even less titled than Lyon.

On the French front, neither Marseille nor PSG are impressive in this regards either. Marseille have only eight league titles scattered throughout the past seventy years and only one Champions League win in 1993, though to their credit, they did make the UEFA Cup final a few years ago. PSG’s prize list is sadder, with only two league wins and one UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup in 1996.

So I guess it’s fair to say that there aren’t any teams in France with a lot of titles. Just clubs that dominate during a certain period of time but eventually sink back into ignominy. Hopefully this will change with time, as Lyon cannot aspire to greatness while playing in a (relatively) mediocre league.

2 - Big European clubs have a long history. Lyon doesn’t meet this criterion either. They only recently appeared on the international scene. The club’s European history (before 1999) consisted of sporadic participation in European Cups. They didn’t come near to winning a domestic title until 1996.

In France, no team can claim to have “history” like Real Madrid, Juventus, and Manchester United. Previously strong French clubs like Reims are currently languishing in Ligue 2 while St. Etienne and Bordeaux are content with mid-table obscurity.

3 - Big European clubs are financially strong. In this instance, Lyon is a big club, with a budget bordering around 200 million euros. Despite what Aulas wants the world to believe, Lyon are quite rich. Thanks to their smart recruitment policy, Lyon capitalized by selling their best players (basically getting more than market value) while also buying cheaply. While Lyon still have a long way to go before they can spend like Barcelona, should Lyon’s economic development continue at its current pace, that day isn’t long in coming.

4 - Big European clubs have strong infrastructures and a good public. Whether Lyon have both is debatable. The Stade de Gerland can hold only 40,000 people. Big European clubs have stadiums that are 60,000+ and are almost always sold out. Additionally, these clubs are well established and popular throughout the world, selling shirts in countries as obscure as Sri Lanka. At the moment, Lyon cannot compete, but Aulas has been taking steps to increase the club’s marketability. Lyon have been growing their fanbase in Asia thanks to tours in Japan and Korea, and their performances in the Champions League is winning over admirers all around the world. Also, now that Lyon is floated on the stock market, the funds will be used to build a higher capacity stadium for the club (Project OL-Land).

The vélo: home of the most passionate football fans in France.

As for the fanbase…in this respect, Marseille is the winner. No place in France is quite like the Velodrome, and their fans are among the most passionate in Europe. Lyon’s fanbase, on the other hands, is considered to be “cold.” Many critics are convinced that if the club started losing, the fans would disappear as well. I don’t believe that, though I agree that Lyon ultras could, well, become ultra. It should also be kept in mind that Lyon was an unknown until ten years ago, and a club has to start from somewhere. As the club become more successful, more fans will appear.

5 - Big European clubs attract “stars.” There’s no point in denying that Lyon can’t attract big players. But there are good reasons for this. First of all, the wage problem. Though Lyon pay the highest wages in France, they can’t compete with Spanish, Italian, and English clubs because of high French taxes (read more on that here).

Secondly, location also plays a role. While Lyon is the second largest city in France, it holds no candle to Milan, London, Madrid, Barcelona, etc, in terms of entertainment and cosmopolitan glamor.

6 - Big European clubs inspire fear in the Champions League. In this case, Lyon qualifies with room to spare. Just because Lyon have a tendency to choke in the latter stages of the tournament don’t stop them from scaring European giants such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, etc. Before the knockout round draws took place this past December, most players and managers wanted to avoid Lyon the most. And you can be sure that out of all the second seeds for next year’s Champions League, Lyon will be considered the most dangerous.

It’s for a simple reason, actually. Even at their worst, Lyon are quite difficult to play against, mostly due to a strong collective mentality than to any star player. And along with Milan, Lyon are the only club to reach the Round of 16 consecutively for four years, as well as the quarterfinals three years in a row. Their superb record in Europe (29 wins, 13 draws, 8 losses in the last five years) almost makes one forget that their rare losses come at the worst moments. This year’s loss to Roma was the worst Lyon performance I’ve ever seen and was quite shocking to the football world (no disrespect to you, Chris, but Lyon were the ones expected to advance to the quarterfinals, not Roma. Talk about a backfiring plan).

Feel the love.

I estimate that will take another few years before Lyon leave the group of second tier clubs (like Sevilla, PSV, Roma, Atletico, Benfica, Porto, etc). First, Lyon need to win the Champions League, or at least make the finals. Secondly, having a new stadium of their very own will help financially as well as aesthetically (great clubs don’t play in small stadiums!).

Also, by 2010 Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa will be full-fledged amazing footballers (assuming we can hang onto them until then). Call me Arsene, but I really think Lyon’s “kids” can lead the club to greatness. Of course, by then Juninho will have retired, but since the club is abandoning the 4-3-3, his loss shouldn’t make too much of an impact on the pitch (though we’ll miss those free kicks!). Also, Aulas needs to be in charge forever. I can’t imagine OL with any other president, though I can imagine a lot of different managers.

What do you guys think?