Sunday 17th September 2023 – The Groupama Stadium, Lyon, France

“To you, the Olympique Lyonnais 2023-2024 squad, this message is addressed to you, to some of you already, to those who assume the status of dressing-room leaders.

“The message is clear: if there are leaders in this dressing room, they no longer have the right to remain silent. You’re wearing the Olympique Lyonnais jersey. You’re the ones who wear the OL jersey.

“Others before you have worn it, glorified it. You don’t have the right to tarnish it. Now that the transfer window is over, the squad is here. All we ask is to be by your side. But to do that, you’re going to have to earn it.”

This extraordinary (literal translation) speech was given by one of the ultras leaders, addressing the Lyon team and management direct from the stands after their 4-1 defeat to PSG two weeks ago.  It is fair to say the result was the straw that broke the camel’s back and saw Les Gones hit rock bottom of Ligue 1 after four games of a season where they had been expected to be challenging PSG at the other end of the table.

The international break arrived just at the right time for the boss Laurent Blanc, or so it seemed.  A chance to go back to the drawing board, create a new strategy for his squad to drag themselves off the bottom of the table.  But ten days after the heavy defeat, and three days before they took on Ligue One minnows, Le Havre, the OL board sacked the former French captain.

As luck would have it (yawn), I was in town for the Rugby World Cup, or at least passing through to Saint Etienne to watch Australia versus Fiji. The fixture gods couldn’t have rolled better dice for me with Olympique Lyonnais’ game scheduled for 8:45pm on Sunday.  

The Rugby World Cup is taking place exclusively in football stadiums, aside from the multi-sport Stade de France.  Yet domestic football matches were still continuing in the stadiums without much fuss or rescheduling.  The two organisations had put their heads together to make sure that both rugby and football fans could enjoy their respective sports irrespective of the fixtures which meant I could see an oval ball in the home of Les Verts before making my first visit to the Groupama Arena for OL’s game.  Happy days.

The timing of the end of the rugby and the start of the football was tight but doable.  A blistering hot afternoon in Saint Etienne, the stadium packed to the rafters and the organisers counting the Euro from the €10 a pop beers, with alcohol for rugby of course.  I delayed leaving the game until I had no contingency- Fiji’s historic victory had to be savoured, especially in the face of the drunk, ungracious Australian fans around me.

I made the train back to Lyon with seconds to spare, then just made it onto the tram at Lyon Part-Dieu.  For such a big Stadium (the second biggest in the French league) it has incredibly bad public transport links.  One tram line heads to the stadium, which deposits you about a mile away.  I was going to make it on time, just.  There would be no visit to the club shop to buy some tat, no alcohol-free beer and no mountain of frites.  At the bag search the steward pulled out my compact camera.  He called over a supervisor and they closely examined it.

Without quoting the conversation in their pigeon English or my ‘Allo ‘Allo French verbatim, the conversation went something like this:

“You can’t bring that camera in.  It’s a professional one.  They are banned”

“It’s not a professional camera.  It’s a compact camera” I show them the lens.

“It’s has lots of dials and settings.  You need to be a professional to use it.”

“Do I look like a professional?”  There’s a long pause.

“You could throw it at someone and hurt them”

“It costs hundreds of Euro.  Why would I throw it at a someone?”

“Ah…so if it cost that much, it must be professional”

It was now 8:50 and the conversation was, like me, going nowhere.  I admitted defeat and was directed to the bag drop.  They looked at my tiny man bag and wondered why I was dropping it off.  I showed them my camera and they said “that’s not a professional camera”.  I’d apparently picked the biggest jobs worth steward out of the hundreds employed by the club on a match day.

Finally I was able to enter the impressive stadium.  It was a long climb up to the top tier but the view was superb – an absolute bargain at €12, less than the cost to watch most Step 4 clubs today, yet here I was watching one of France’s most successful teams in one of Europe’s most modern major stadiums.  The stadium has hosted the Europa League Final, a host venue in Euro2016, will be used in the coming weeks for the Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Summer Olympics.  Built it and they will come.  But having fantastic facilities doesn’t necessarily bring in the field success.

The ground was about 2/3rd full, with most of the top tier closed off on the opposite side of the stadium closed off, except the smattering of away fans who had made the 800 mile round journey from Normandy.

The hardcore OL support was split between the Virage Sud, with the fans who confronted the players two weeks ago at the opposite end, the Virage Nord.  They sang, bounced and at one point threw white towels towards the pitch midway through the second half, a symbolic gesture perhaps? 

It was a decent game.  All of my knowledge and experience of scouting was completely redundant here, as neither side seemed to be playing with any structure or formation.  Liquid, would be a summary of how Lyonnais played in the first period.  Centre-backs marauded at will, full-backs slotted into the number 10 role and Alexander Lacazette, the attacking option in what should have been a 4-3-2-1, made a last gasp tackle on more than one occasion (you read that right Arsenal fans). Despite all their possession, their attacking intent and goal scoring opportunities, the Le Havre keeper rarely had a save to make.

Half-time saw a murmur go around the stadium rather than encouragement.  On the plus side, they’d not conceded but had rarely looked like hitting the target themselves.  The visitors had they chances and probably came the closest to breaking the deadlock.  

There was no repeat of the post-match interrogation by the Virage Nord on the players.  They accepted a point and a clean sheet was progress from what had gone before, and that lifted them out of the relegation zone for the time being.  The fans piled onto the trams parked up outside the stadium, moving off as soon as they were full.  In a league where nobody was yet dominating, the talk of the tram was again more of a missed opportunity rather than any real positivity.  The fans alighted back at Part-Dieu and disappeared into the night, bouncing off the inebriated England (and for the night, Fiji) rugby fans coming out of the bars having seen them beat Japan.  The clash of sporting cultures and fortunes was clear.  There would be better nights for OL, the days are always darkest before dawn.