The coming weeks promise to be tense for OL, in the sights of the DNCG. The Rhone club will have to bring in new money to avoid a demotion to Ligue 2 at the end of the season. And, Lyon doesn't have much room for maneuver.
Will 2025 be synonymous with a brutal fall for Olympique Lyonnais? The fifth in Ligue 1 has been trembling since his last visit to the DNCG. The financial policeman of French football punished him harshly for very poorly maintained financial accounts. Lyon is prohibited from recruiting with its regulated payroll, above all suffering a demotion to Ligue 2 as a precautionary measure. John Textor remains publicly confident but the money will have to arrive quickly and in very large quantities. Several tens of millions of euros are needed to reassure the DNCG.
OL almost bankrupt, the risk is real
If Textor often talks about selling his shares to Crystal Palace to replenish the coffers, Rhone supporters especially fear that OL executives will be sold in January: Rayan Cherki? Malick Fofana? Alexandre Lacazette or Georges Mikautadze? Enough to weaken the Gones in their quest for the Champions League and for some to question the relevance of the DNCG. However, the body's questions are legitimate according to Florent Bergmann, member of the Limoges Center for Sports Law and Economics (CDES). For him, OL is “ tight flow “. If Textor's plans fail, the Rhone club can imitate the Girondins de Bordeaux last summer.
« Whether this year is more momentous than the others, I don't know. The financial situation is particularly tense. The potential retrograde makes this a pivotal year. But let's not forget, on a sporting level, that he could obtain a place for the profitable Champions League, and thus make commitments for the following season with greater income. I think that the DNCG is traumatized by the case of Bordeaux, rightly so, to see how it will influence the case of OL. It will not be abandoned, but there is a strong risk of ending up at some point with complete drying up, and this is what the body noted “, he told the site Olympic and Lyonnais. John Textor therefore has 6 months to avoid a disaster scenario for OL, for the city of Lyon, for an entire region, and even for Ligue 1.
