Lyon misery continues with spectre of spate of voluntary redundancies

It hasn’t been a good week for Olympique Lyonnais. After losing the Choc des Olympiques against fierce rivals Olympique de Marseille on Sunday, despite playing against 10 men for over 85 minutes, their owner, John Textor, was then faced with the disappointment of missing out on purchasing Everton on Monday. Following weeks of talks, the Premier League side announced that an agreement had been struck with the Friedkin Group, who had initially pulled out of talks several weeks ago.

In financial difficulty, Lyon are now looking to decrease their workforce, according to a report from the AFP. Discussions are underway with a view to making around 90 voluntary redundancies. Currently, Lyon have more than 600 employees, almost the same amount as Paris Saint-Germain, whose financial means are more significant.

AFP have been informed from an internal source at OL that around 73 positions are set to be cut and that around 20 other employees could change their posting. The goal is to bring down the number of employees to around 500. In a meeting that outlined this plan, CEO Laurent Prud’homme cited the lack of UEFA Champions League football in recent seasons (no participation since 2020) as one of the reasons why the workforce needs to be reduced.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle