Lyon

About

Olympique Lyonnais, commonly referred to as simply Lyon or OL, is a French professional football club based in Lyon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. With origins dating back to 1899, they were founded in 1950 and now competes in France's second football division, Ligue 2. The club won its first Ligue 1 championship in 2002, beginning a national record-setting streak of seven successive titles. Lyon has also won eight Trophées des Champions, five Coupes de France, and three Ligue 2 titles. The team has participated in the UEFA Champions League seventeen times, and during the 2009–10 season reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time after three previous quarter-final appearances. They once again reached this stage in the 2019–20 season. Olympique Lyonnais plays its home matches at the 59,186-seat Parc Olympique Lyonnais, commercially known as the Groupama Stadium, in Décines-Charpieu, a suburb of Lyon. The club's home colors are white, red and blue. Lyon was a member of the G14 group of leading European football clubs and are founder members of its successor, the European Club Association. The club's nickname, Les Gones, means "The Kids" in Lyon's regional dialect of Franco-Provençal. They have a long-standing rivalry with nearby team Saint-Étienne, against whom they contest the Derby rhônalpin. French businessman Jean-Michel Aulas owned Lyon from June 1987 until it was purchased by American businessman John Textor in December 2022. On 24th June 2025, it was confirmed that Olympique Lyon were relegated to Ligue 2 after financial issues.