Olympique Lyonnais will not be playing in the Champions League next season but president Jean-Michel Aulas has said that the club will still be competitive in the Mercato this summer
Following the 3-1 win over Evian TG on day 24 of Ligue 1, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Olympique-Lyonnais-c40130 president, Jean-Michel Aulas was in a disgruntled mood.
“Today, we must assume a different status. Of course I’m disappointed not to be in the Champions League. But we must move with times,” said Aulas albeit with a lot of effort.
Not seeing his team play in the competition next season is certainly a big blow for Aulas as it will be a big strain on the finances of the club. However, for now, Les Gones are doing rather well economically.
OL Group has recently released figures of its activity in the first nine months of fiscal 2011/2012.
Total amount was around 116 million Euros and was down 3.7% from the previous season. The brand that almost fell to -6.9 million Euros has now been recouped.
However, the TV rights went up 2.8% to 57.9 million euros against 55.6 million Euros last year at this time. Revenue from player sale reached 10.8 million Euros, the amount that the club received following the sale of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roma-c31603 last summer.
Though lacklustre, the figures are far from catastrophic. Financial analysts are claiming that by the next fiscal year, that would be without UCL, Lyon will have a strong back. The key was always to save today for a better tomorrow and it seems that the
austerity plan is doing what was expected of it.
Though the club is bound to lose some TV rights for not being in the Champions League, the club’s finances would be less constrained.
The construction of Stade des Lumieres is well on track as well which is a good sign for the club.
“The deal signed on July 26, 2011 with Vinci has been extended in order to pursue the original contract to allow the negotiating parties to sign their final agreements.”
This news may offer a lot hope to the revenues of OL. Meanwhile, selling some players has become very important as the wage bill needs to be reduced.
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