Sans luster

Olympique Lyon aims to break 20-year jinx

PARIS (Reuters) -- Olympique Lyon kick off the defence of their French league title at En Avant Guingamp on Friday hoping to break a jinx that goes back 20 years.

Lyon, who secured their first ever crown in a dramatic final match against RC Lens in May, have not won a championship opener since 1981.

"I was told about this statistic," said coach Paul Le Guen who has taken over from the strong-minded Jacques Santini, newly appointed to run the French national team after two years in charge of Lyon.

"And we are going to to do everything to break the jinx."

"Last year we went down 2-0 at RC Lens but eventually we snatched the title," said goalkeeper Gregory Coupet. "So, we must stop being too superstitious. We are going there [to Guingamp] for the victory."

Lyon are aiming for a good start in Brittany before they enter the lucrative Champions' League, an event in which they have so far failed to reach the knockout round.

"We feel we are a very strong side," said midfielder Philippe Violeau. "But we will have to prove it on the pitch."

"We have great motivation but we must keep in mind that we start on the same line as everyone else," Violeau said.

Olympique Lyon will start as the side to beat in a championship enlarged to 20 clubs rather than as the outsiders.

"The atmosphere has not changed and is the same as last season," said Coupet. "We still have the same thirst for victories and the same will to prove ourselves."

Lyon will be almost at full strength for the opening game, missing only libero Edmilson and Belgian defender Eric Deflandre.

Edmilson, who helped Brazil win their fifth world title in June, has been excused and will stay with his expectant wife who is to due to give birth at the weekend.

Deflandre has been allowed more rest after taking part in the World Cup finals.

"I have many options for the lineup," said Le Guen who hinted he might field the side which crushed French Cup winners Lorinet 5-1 in the Champions' Trophy.

French game lacks luster as new season starts

PARIS (AP) -- Les Bleus are no longer World Champions, top clubs are in financial trouble and few sides look strong enough to succeed at European level.

The French first-division season kicks off Friday against a glum backdrop for the domestic game.

"For the World and European champions, it was a big fall," Lyon and international goalkeeper Gregory Coupet said of France's first-round humiliation at the World Cup. "But I still say that France has the best players in the world."

The problem is most of them don't play for French teams.

The national side's biggest stars ply their trade with English, Spanish and Italian clubs -- and now the French championship is losing some of its foreign talent, too.

Senegalese striker El-Hadji Diouf, one of the revelations of the World Cup, moved to Liverpool from last season's league runner-up Lens.

Countryman Salif Diao has gone to the same club from Sedan and Cameroonian midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe has been loaned to Manchester City from reigning French champion Lyon.

"The French championship isn't known for being the greatest," Coupet told soccer magazine France Football. "But it's really one for new talent. Every season it's pillaged by the big European clubs, which proves that there's quality as far as the young players and the training go."

About the biggest transfer triumph for French clubs this summer was managing to keep the league's two Brazilian World Cup champions: emerging superstar Ronaldinho at Paris Saint-Germain, and Lyon defender Edmilson.

PSG president Laurent Perpere said the club never considered selling Ronaldinho, despite debts of up to 20 million euros (US$19.5 million).

"I have never considered the player a piece of merchandise," Perpere said. "The club, his teammates, the staff have given him [Ronaldinho] an intellectually and emotionally fulfilling environment. Otherwise, he would have gone."

Despite having one of the biggest budgets in the French league, PSG finished fourth last season and failed to win a berth in Europe's lucrative Champions League. There's now speculation cash-strapped parent company Vivendi Universal wants to sell the team, although Perpere said nothing had officially been decided.

Another former powerhouse, Olympique de Marseille, also has financial problems and has begun a campaign to sell a third of its players to reduce costs.

The side is still recovering from the bitter internal strife of recent years and new manager Alain Perrin said the team has had to limit its ambitions.

"We want to finish in the top five," Perrin said. "That would already by an improvement on the last three seasons. It won't be easy because I can see six or seven clubs capable of finishing in the top five."

OM finished ninth at the end of last season.

Lyon looks by far the strongest club in the French top flight, which this season features 20 clubs, instead of last season's 18.

Apart from Foe, Lyon has retained almost all its key players, including Edmilson, up-and-coming French striker Sidney Govou and veteran forward Sonny Anderson.

"Our aim is to keep the title," Lyon's new trainer, Paul Le Guen, said. "We know it's a difficult goal for all clubs."

"Lyon is still not as respected as OM or PSG," Coupet, the third-choice French goalkeeper, said. "It still has to prove itself. That's why we have to aim for the title again."

Le Guen replaced Jacques Santini, who quit after leading Lyon to its first league title last season. Santini was later named to replace French national team coach Roger Lemerre, who was fired after France exited the World Cup in the first round with no goals scored.

Although Lyon is favored to retain the title -- which no French club has done since Marseille in 1992 -- it will struggle to make a big impact on the Champions League. With a near identical squad last year, it exited in the first round of European club soccer's premier competition.

Lens also plays in the Champions League. Coach Joel Muller said the club's heavy European commitments would likely hurt its first-division title campaign.

"We can't be favorites [for the first-division title] because there is the Champions League to be played," Muller said. "The squad has changed and above all very few of my players know the Champions League."

Among other clubs, Auxerre is tipped to cause a stir this season with a pack of talented young players, including French international Djibril Cisse.

Monaco, Nantes and Rennes struggled last year and like most French clubs had a quiet summer transfer period, suggesting a spectacular turnaround is unlikely.

Bordeaux signed former Lorient striker Jean-Claude Darcheville in a bid to reclaim its position among France's top clubs.

Four newly promoted teams will play in the top flight this season: Nice, Ajaccio, Strasbourg and Le Havre. Nice nearly didn't make it. The club was dropped to the third division by French soccer officials this summer because of financial problems, but was later reinstated.

Modest Guingamp hosts titleholder Lyon on Friday in the opening match of the French first division. The remaining nine matches take place Saturday.

French first division fixtures

    Friday, August 2
 En Avant Guingamp   v  Olympique Lyon (1845 GMT)

    Saturday, August 3
 Olympique Marseille v  Nantes (1515 GMT)
 Paris St Germain    v  AJ Auxerre
 Bastia              v  RC Lens
 Lille               v  Girondins Bordeaux
 Nice                v  Le Havre
 Montpellier         v  Stade Rennes
 Sedan               v  Sochaux
 Strasbourg          v  Ajaccio
 Troyes              v  Monaco

 

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.