[BrianCappellieri]

Lyon ready to throw off the shackles of history
French League: Defending champions out to disprove 'inferior' tag as attempt to emulate superpowers leads to increase in number of clubs
Independent Sport

[SportBoy321]

That was a great article. Changing the name of the league and adding more teams won't help but their tax reduction idea they've proposed they might be on to something with that. It's great that France is tired of their league being medicore and they want to do sometng about it instead of sitting back and doing nothing.

[Shah]

This was an excellent read and Lyon seem intent on attempting to join the football elite. Marseille has rested on their laurels of past achievements and relied on its name to try to pretend that they still are what they used to be. OM is not hacking it in domestic game.. so they have no chance for Europe. PSG can have their nice store on the Champs-Elysses, the flashy Canal Plus owernship and try to commercialize themselves like elite clubs, but it don't matter when they don't perform in Europe like one. Lyon had a bit of a disapointing run last year in Europe, but this is far and away the most ambitious club in France. I agree the French gov needs to let up on taxes, but that is only the first step. We need to have more clubs who will realize that that the parity in the Championnat, while it makes for one of the most unpredictable domestic leagues in Western Europe, is going to hurt chances of developing clubs that can compete with Europe's elite.

[BrianCappellieri]

Agreed. Good article and I finally found out why they changed the name!

Tomorrow Lyon is away to Marseille.

[BrianCappellieri]

Marseille prepare for Lyon test

Olympique Marseille host French champions Olympique Lyon on Friday in their first home match of the season...
SoccerNet

[JRedknapp11]

Lyon - Marseille (R)

http://www.soccerway.com/news/index....rea=1029528601