Olympique LyonOlympique Lyonnais (French pronunciation: commonly referred to as Olympique Lyon, Lyon, or simply OL) is a French association football club based in Lyon. They play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1.
The club was formed as Lyon Olympique Universitaire in 1899, according to many supporters and sport historians, but was nationally established as a club in 1950. Their most successful period has been the 21st century. The club won their first ever Ligue 1 championship in 2002, starting a national record-breaking streak of seven successive titles. Lyon have also won a record seven Trophée des Champions, four Coupe de France titles, and three Ligue 2 Championships. They have appeared in the UEFA Champions League eleven times and, during the 2009–10 season, reached the semi-finals of the competition for the first time after three previous quarter-final appearances.
Olympique Lyonnais play their home matches at the 41,044-seat Stade de Gerland in Lyon. In 2013, they plan to move into their new stadia, tentatively named OL Land, in Décines-Charpieu, a suburb of Lyon. The club's home colours are white, red and blue. Lyon were a member of the G14 group of leading European football clubs and are founder members of its successor, the European Club Association. The chairman of Lyon is Jean-Michel Aulas and club is managed by Claude Puel.
Olympique Lyonnais is one of the most popular clubs in France. About 11% of the country's population support the club. Lyon share this number with Paris Saint-Germain and only trail Olympique de Marseille. Lyon do, however, hold the honor of being the richest club in the country having generated an annual revenue stream of €139.6 million for the 2008–09 season, according to accountants Deloitte.
Olympique Lyonnais also has a successful women's football team having won their league a record seven times, the last being the 2008–09 season. The women's team has also won three Challenge de France titles.
The club's nickname, Les Gones, means "The Kids" in Lyon's regional dialect of Arpitan language.
Source : Wikipedia.com
