Lyon’s €126.7m lawsuit against the LFP thrown out by the courts

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The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal has dismissed Ligue 1 side Lyon’s lawsuit against the French league body, the LFP, in connection with the end of the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season that coincided with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to L’Équipe. The Rhone club were seeking more than 120 million euros in damages.

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Olympique Lyonnais will not receive the 126.7 million euros that it was seeking. The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal dismissed the OL in its lawsuit against the LFP for the end of the 2019-2020 Ligue 1 season following the coronavirus pandemic. The decision was rendered on December 16th and confirms the judgment that was made in the first instance.

Lyon argued that the LFP did not have the right to stop the 2019/20 Ligue 1 season, nor adjudicate it by using the method of the number of points scored per match played. Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas believed that the fairest solution was to expunge the season, which would have allowed his club to once again qualify for the Champions’ League (thanks to its 3rd place in the 2018/19 campaign). But with the LFP’s chosen ranking system, OL finished in 7th place, not qualifying for a European Cup.

This is why the club sought 104.8 million Euros in damages, corresponds with its assessment of the damage linked to non-qualification for the Champions’ League. Olympique Lyonnais also sought an additional €19m in relation to the TV rights which were not received, but also €2.8m in connection with commercial partnerships.

Still according to L’Équipe, the court considered that the LFP was within its right to handle the 2019/20 season in the way that it did, but also that OL was unable to prove that it faced “certain” prejudice compared to the other teams in the championship. In other words, there is no evidence that the club would have qualified for the Champions League if the season had continued.

It is a new legal defeat for Jean-Michel Aulas in the context of his actions regarding the end of the 2019-2020 season. In October, a case of his was also dismissed by the Paris Criminal Court for his defamation complaint against his former counterpart Jacques-Henri Eyraud. He attacked the president of Olympique de Marseille at the time, who said he was “ready to pounce on a devastating virus to hide his club’s difficult season in Ligue 1.” The former President of OM had also mentioned “manifestations of selfishness by some great leaders, putting their particular interests at the forefront of their concerns and seeming to make fun of the collective.”

James Thorpe | GFFN