OL has just lived one of the greatest humiliations in its history. The club is officially relegated to Ligue 2 after the DNCG decision.
The unimaginable has come true. This Tuesday evening,
Olympique Lyonnais was officially relegated to Ligue 2 by the DNCG. A brutal, almost unreal decision, fell after the hearing of John Textor and his management team before the financial gendarme of French football. For months, the lights were red, but no one dared to consider such a verdict. The most successful club of the 2000s, monument to the French championship, today pays the price of erratic management and financial guarantees deemed insufficient.
The cleaver fell despite the optimism of Textor
John Textor, however confident after his passage in front of the DNCG, could not convince.
Despite reassuring speeches on available liquidity,
The contributions of shareholders and the sale of Crystal Palace, the file presented did not allow the spectrum to be excluded from a relegation. This administrative decision, made public at 8:48 p.m., throws freezing cold on the Lyon ambitions. A call is certainly possible, but the shock is immense. The image of an OL on his knees, forced to review all his model, now wins.
Lyon and Textor, always more ambiguity
A dizzying fall for a monument in danger
This demotion cruelly recalls the previous ones from Bordeaux or Sochaux. But seeing OL, the fourth most titled club in France, descend in this way remains an unprecedented trauma. A few weeks ago, Lyon hung Europe after a very stressful season. From now on, it is survival that becomes the only priority. The break with the Aulas era is brutal, and the signals sent since the arrival of Eagle Football have led to the worst scenario.
OL between financial uncertainty and hope for a call
The repercussions will be multiple: loss of TV income, potential disaffection of sponsors, departures of key players, distrust of supporters. Management can still try to save the essentials on appeal, but it will have to provide solid, concrete, and convincing guarantees. Otherwise, Ligue 2 will officially become the new theater of the ambitions of a club which has never known the lower level since its accession in 1989.
A historic slap for all French football
The relegation of OL exceeds the simple Rhone framework. It questions the economic model of certain historic clubs, foreign governance, and the limits of remote management. The shock is immense for supporters, but also for a whole Ligue 1 which loses one of its pillars. It remains to be seen whether this thunderclap will mark the start of a reconstruction or the lasting collapse of an injured giant.
