EXCLUSIVE - Jean-Michel Aulas: "I will not leave without bringing back a European Cup"

Colin Abgrall 9:47 p.m., January 15, 2022

EXCLUSIVE

In this exclusive interview, Jean-Michel Aulas speaks in particular about his pride in having trained Karim Benzema, about the violence in the stadiums of which the championship has been a victim since the start of the season, as well as about his role as a pioneer in football. before discussing current events at his club and OL's disappointing results this season.

The Groupama Stadium: “the most beautiful and the most environmentally friendly”

“It's a success in many ways, because it's a stadium with a very strong ecological environment. We made sure never to supply it with traditional electricity. We have a project that is starting this morning in a multifunctional sports hall right next door. We have equipped the stadium's 7,000 parking spaces with photovoltaic panels and we are going to produce all the electricity needs of the entire sector. This is the equivalent of 2,000 households in terms of production. In terms of security, we have more than 350 cameras that are there to freeze and intervene at any time. This is also why less than 12 seconds, we had already identified the person who had launched this bottle. It's a relevant stadium that we come to see.All the people who have stadium projects today, worldwide, come to see this achievement. It is probably the most secure, the most beautiful, it must be said, and then also the most environmentally friendly. Which, today, is also a very important element.”

Critics: “It hurts a lot” 

“It's often media coverage that doesn't reflect the population. I not only work abroad quite often, but in France, in the biggest cities of France where I am established for my other activities, there is really an incredible adhesion. People stop me to tell me on the contrary that we should be able to bring what I brought in terms of professionalism in many other cities. Just yesterday, we had a number of people here with whom we were talking, who are from Saint-Etienne and the South of France. There is a gulf between what can sometimes be said with a little wickedness and all the wickedness when we experience an injustice, when we are benevolentrespect of all the people who seem to me to be honest and have projects. It hurts, it hurts a lot. But we not only try not to pay too much attention to what is said when it is very inappropriate and very unfair. But above all we try to imagine how we are going to make sure to get the messages across and then also to look over time.

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"I'm thinking about it", replies Aulas

Women's football: “We have to help the movement”. 

“Loulou (Laurent Nicollin, former president of Montpellier) was really the detonator. And I went to see him. We got along really well and I remember admiring his women's team when I was also starting out in the business. And it was probably he who made me want to succeed, thanks to football, in demonstrating that female parity, that the enhancement of a group, of an institution, could also be achieved in football through football. feminine. Today, everything that women's football represents is extraordinary. I am at FIFA to help develop women's football. You know, a women's soccer game lasts longer than a men's soccer game. For two reasons. The first is that we are not at all trying to deceive the referee, hethere is no dispute and the average time of a women's match is around 14 to 16% more than the time of a men's match. Just that. It demonstrates in a very relevant way that we have an interest in helping the movement.

Tony Parker: “No decision has been made” 

“Tony (Parker) is one of the people I've worked with a lot. There is him, but I have known other very great athletes. As you know, I was Alain Prost's partner at one point in Formula 1. Tony is one of those champions who are extremely good at repositioning their careers. So we tried to think about what we could do. For us, the solution of the future is to have a club that is multi-sport. This is why we have taken positions at ASVEL level. We created the conditions within OL for it to become a company in which we are a leading shareholder with Tony Parker, but also to enable it to go to the Euroleague with the construction of a 14 000 places see 16,000 places according to theuse. So Tony returned to the board. He is one of the people with whom we are currently thinking about basketball. Maybe tomorrow, even more broadly. But there is no decision that has been made yet. We know that a listed club like Lyon has a stock market valuation of several hundred million euros and in general, the most eminent representative, that is to say the one who chairs, is also the representative of the most important shareholders.”is a stock market valuation of several hundred million euros and in general, the most eminent representative, that is to say the one who chairs, is also the representative of the most important shareholders.is a stock market valuation of several hundred million euros and in general, the most eminent representative, that is to say the one who chairs, is also the representative of the most important shareholders.

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Abandon OL?

“I will not leave without the European Cup” 

"No. I am at the head of Olympique Lyonnais. I am the main shareholder with another shareholder who is Jérôme Seydoux. We have been working together for over 20 years. As we said, the performances and the results are quite exceptional over time. It is true that there is a little slump on the sporting level this year. We made choices that did not turn out to be the best. The Juninho episode hurt our hearts. But he excluded himself from the scheme. Still, with or without Juninho, the project to go to the top, to continue to be the most relevant player over time is still there. I won't leave without bringing a European Cup back to Lyon, so we try to make sure, even in the storm,to find the ingredients to continue investing in the medium term and to get where we need to go.”

The Paris FC-OL incidents: “I have just written a letter to the Minister of the Interior”

“I am writing my memoirs and in particular on what has just happened. Because there are a number of things that I did not say voluntarily so as not to sacrifice the institution unnecessarily, but which deserve to be debated. You know, if I take the example of the PFC-OL match, it is the federation that chooses the stadiums that will host. There is a qualification committee, determining the stadiums which host the Coupe de France matches. Everyone knows that Charléty is an athletics stadium and not a football stadium. There are no cameras to see what is happening there and the stadium is not closed. It was a match with the opposition of Lyon and Paris, we were not organizers of the trips. We weren't warnedwhich was on the other hand the case of the organizing club, of a certain number of risks with hooligans of Paris Saint-Germain. And so, when the Federation decides to fix this match in Charléty, it knows that there are a certain number of risks. So, you have to make sure with the organizer, but also with the police, that if there is a risk, everything must be done accordingly. It turns out that we have hooligans who went there and we condemned them immediately. We fired them right away for those we identified. We asked the police to help us identify the others because there were more than four. I have just written a letter, which will be made public soon, to the Minister of the Interior so that we can be helped to identify and sanction. How theEngland succeeded in punishing its hooligans? It is by having individual legal actions that cause those who have nothing to do in a football stadium to be ejected from all stadiums. We were kicked out, we didn't say anything. But the reality is that today, if France wants to free itself from real concerns, it is necessary to directly sanction individuals.

Fan violence: “Decisions that are unfair” 

“It's an absolute tragedy. That's why I think we shouldn't just unload on football. When during a public meeting, a madman comes to slap the President of the Republic. All security arrangements are normally made. It is not the Minister of the Interior who is responsible for the slap that is administered to the President of the Republic. It is the whole of the legal system, the whole of the judicial and penal system. Olympique Lyonnais must count a certain number of negative points, fines, matches behind closed doors. We were initially deprived of the Marseille match, which represents 4 to 5 million euros in revenue. Then, with the gauges of the Paris and Saint-Etienne match coming up, itis nearly 15 to 20 million euros for which we are being sanctioned. So there are things that hurt a lot. There was a bottle throw. Unfortunately, the game has stopped. We were sanctioned while the author of the disturbance was handed over to the police. He was tried in immediate appearance, less than three days later. And it is we who take the sanction. He was not a supporter of Olympique Lyonnais since he appeared in court with a Bayern jersey. These hooligan fights in the stadiums derive from decisions that are probably very unfair.He was tried in immediate appearance, less than three days later. And it is we who take the sanction. He was not a supporter of Olympique Lyonnais since he appeared in court with a Bayern jersey. These hooligan fights in the stadiums derive from decisions that are probably very unfair.He was tried in immediate appearance, less than three days later. And it is we who take the sanction. He was not a supporter of Olympique Lyonnais since he appeared in court with a Bayern jersey. These hooligan fights in the stadiums derive from decisions that are probably very unfair.

average results: "The coach gives us total satisfaction"

“At the moment T, the results are average and we are completely confident. We suffer even more when we look at the team that is made available to the coaches. We have a team in all the international positions. We are certain of having a good team which does not always play very well together, but with strong individualities. We have a coach who, today, gives us total satisfaction, through his experience and his organization. You can see it's tough. But there are no results to match. So we said 'let's continue'. Me, I said until the end of February to see what happens. But in my mind, we are going to play the round of 16 of the European Cup because it is true that we do not have good results in the league,but when you look at the results in the European Cup, they are excellent. We are, with PSG, the biggest contributor of UEFA points for the nation of France. And it's important because if we want to go up in the UEFA ranking, it's essential. We are very pragmatic. We obviously gave ourselves a little time. We are not going to put ourselves in danger because today, we are doing the calculations to give ourselves good hopes but we will not be stupid. But today, that is absolutely not the hypothesis. On the one hand, because frankly, he is a good coach. 2 We have a relationship that may not have been constant enough, but there was a sports director. It is up to him to manage this relationship perfectly. We took matters into our own hands today. Give us some time. Therefore,we are going to take a number of measures in terms of internal organization.”

Juninho: “We pushed the experience to the end”

“When Juninho had all the power, we had contact with a certain number of coaches, Rudi (Garcia) and then there was Laurent Blanc. That was the beginning of the difficulty with “Juni”, because he didn't want it. We pushed the experiment to the end. We made changes each time. Now, we are actually going to entrust Bruno Cheyrou with organizing all the recruitment. I hear it said sometimes that we did not give ourselves the means. Do you know how much we spent in two years of investing in players? 160 million euros. We will also make a number of adjustments in terms of recruitment, perhaps even from this transfer window. Well, I hear that we do indeed have difficulties, but everyone has their difficulties. We have the ability not toadmit defeat and continue to invest if necessary, to build if necessary.”

The future of OL: "I don't feel like an old schnock"

“I tried to prepare for the future. You reminded me, I am 72 years old. I don't feel like an old geezer at all. I take lots of initiatives, the mechanics work, the dynamism is still there and I said it, I would not like to leave Olympique Lyonnais in the same situation in which I found it. But all the same, if I want to leave one day, I have to structure it. And we have plenty of great quality people who, today, take on most of the day-to-day decision-making. There is a bad pass. I am convinced that we can straighten it out. I will put all my energy into it. But delegating does not mean not being aware. I am very aware of everything that is going on and when there is something to rectify, we try to do it.

Lucas Paqueta: “At 80 million euros, we are still thinking” 

“It's true that Lucas is one of the very great players we went looking for. I made the decision to bring him, and me alone, because it was necessary to put 21 million overnight, in the midst of the coronavirus period. Today, there is a club that has been solicited, but through the newspaper. It is true that it came oddly. I told Leonardo I was going to call him. But no, he will not go to Paris. There was another club, however, who made a request to us. It's a club that has a lot of money but it's confidential for the moment. He will stay with us. He himself absolutely wants to do the medium to long term. Well, now, as I always say, at 80 million euros we are still thinking, even for other players. I'm honest."

Laurent Blanc: “We never know”

“Yes, I'm thinking about it.

It's true that, at the time, I was in solidarity with Juninho.

But he is a boy who has incomparable experience.

And I had seen him for a long time in Russia for the World Cup (in 2018) and I had felt that there was this capacity.

Things didn't happen for the reasons I explained to you.

Do we ever know ?"

Karim Benzema: “It's a dream to bring him back” 

“It is true that we are associated with his extraordinary success by the heart, by filiation.

And we say to ourselves that each time he scores one more goal and is as efficient, he is moving away from the day he will return to Lyon.

Because hey, I don't see the president of Madrid letting go of Karim.

But as soon as we have the possibility of being able to bring him back, I don't know how, as a player, as an educator... But in any case, it's true that it's a dream.