17th in Ligue 1 after eight days with no success, Olympique Lyonnais is having the worst start to the season in its history. To the point that the future of the club in the elite of French football seems in danger even if the championship is still long. Appointed executive president of OL last summer to replace Jean-Michel Aulas, Santiago Cucci spoke about the critical situation of Les Gones this Wednesday. The American leader wanted to reassure his supporters, insisting on the reliability of the project led by John Textor.
“We have a debt of 300 million euros. We are in the process of renovating it. (…) The project is very solid. We have a rating from an independent agency which rated us BBB, a very, very good rating compared to the size of our activity, he explained on the club’s YouTube channel. Normally, we are BB, here we are BBB. There is the world leader (in financial ratings) which gives us one of the best marks in terms of financial solidity, which allows us in particular to reorganize the debt.
In order to focus on the recovery of the men’s team, the Lyon management plans to sell the women’s section and the American franchise OL Reign, acquired in 2020. “We are in the process of selling our stake in OL Reign, it takes time . We are moving forward with the complete separation of the women’s section and a transfer to Michele Kang. All this will happen before the end of the year, it’s moving forward on schedule. (…) We have a situation that is real. We are solid, we have a project. This project will come to an end and inevitably it will take the club forward,” confirmed Cucci.
Before being optimistic about the rest of the season, despite the current relegation position of Fabio Grosso’s team. “OL are not playing their part. He will leave again and from the moment we have the results, things will continue. We’re not going to look down. We are proud, we will hold on, there are values at OL that are important. We are humble but we will fight and we will succeed. We have the right people in charge.”
After the international break, OL, in the midst of a crisis, will host Clermont in a match of fear at the bottom of the standings then will travel to the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille.
