• Can we talk about the Lopezico?

    This Saturday, Losc, led by Gérard Lopez from 2017 to 2020, welcomes the Girondins de Bordeaux, a club currently chaired by… Gérard Lopez, at the Pierre-Mauroy stadium.

  • In nearly four years in Lille, the leader has left a contrasting legacy between finances, supporters and players.

Back to basics.

This Saturday (7 p.m.), Gérard Lopez's heart will be a little divided when he returns to the Pierre-Mauroy stadium where the Girondins de Bordeaux are traveling to challenge Losc and try to leave their 20th place in Ligue 1. Arrived at the head of the Girondins last summer, the Hispano-Luxembourgish businessman discovered the French championship in the North above all.

In January 2017, he bought the club from Michel Seydoux with the ambition of putting the northern club back in the Champions League.

Objective fulfilled in 2019 even if his first full season with the Mastiffs (2017-2018) almost turned into an absolute fiasco with relegation narrowly avoided (17th).

But in December 2020, Lopez had to leave Lille, forced and forced by the Elliott investment fund, which felt that he was not repaying the debt contracted with him quickly enough.

An end in blood sausage for the ex-boss of Losc whose

20 Minutes

draws up the heritage.

Bloodless finances

Sometimes history can seem a bit unfair.

This is surely what Gérard Lopez must have said to himself on May 23, 2021 when he saw Losc become champion of France.

It was not to celebrate it when there was surely a bit much in this title.

But today the first thing that many L1 followers remember from his time with the Mastiffs is that of the man who led a club to the edge of the precipice.

Is it true or not?

We will never really know since Gérard Lopez had to quickly pack his bags.

His detractors say yes given the debts while he has always repeated no because the valuation of the workforce (nearly 300 million euros according to him) would have made it possible to get out of the rut.

His successor, Olivier Létang, strongly disputes this as he explained at the microphone of RMC Sport a few months ago: “When a club generates a structural operating deficit, and presents a debt at 31/12/2020, excluding financial debt, nearly 160 million euros [87 in debts to clubs you bought players from,

39 of supplier debts, including 29 of agent debts and 33 of tax and social debts, of which 18 of debts vis-à-vis URSSAF according to the current president of Lille] with available cash of 9 million euros, this club was in a situation of economic sinking.

This debt has since been reduced to 106 million euros and will be reduced again by the next passage before the DNCG at the end of the season.

Gray areas around certain transfers

The other part of this financial legacy is the transfers of certain players under the presidency of Gérard Lopez.

Since his departure, justice has indeed been closely investigating some of them (Osimhen, Lihadji, etc.).

These files continue to pollute the daily life of Losc and it could still go on for some time.

Two examples: the Lille leaders had a meeting this week with their lawyers about one of his transfers.

Since his appointment, Olivier Létang, has also been heard on this subject by the judicial police.

In the small (or large depending on) kind of pebble left in the shoe by Gérard Lopez, we can also cite the affair of the convention between Losc and the Belgian club of Mouscron, property of the new boss of the Girondins.

An agreement which provided for the payment by the Lille club of a draft of 4 million euros each season to Excelsior intended to pay all or part of the charges of the six players loaned by the Mastiffs without counting the six other elements from of the reserve team.

This was very quickly denounced by the new management, which could also take this case to court in the coming months.

Distant relations with supporters

If in Bordeaux, Gérard Lopez quickly put the ultras in his pockets by presenting himself as the savior of the club, the story did not really happen in the same way in the North.

“We were not at all in the same relationship of seduction as in Bordeaux where he immediately relied on the supporters to get his project across.

In Lille, it was very different.

When he arrived, his project was based on Bielsa and he was not on the front line at all, ”recalls François Stock, president of Dogues du Net, a group of Losc supporters.

Except that the big blow Marcelo Bielsa, appointed coach of Losc in the summer of 2017, will very quickly turn into a fiasco.

After only three months at the helm of the club, the Argentinian was fired in November due to poor results.

If Christophe Galtier takes over at the end of December, the results do not improve and the club fears for its maintenance.

At the beginning of March 2018, just to calm the disputes in the stands which are starting to rise around the Lille project, Gérard Lopez finally organizes a first meeting with the groups of Losc supporters.

“He tried to play down the situation by explaining his trading project.

He tried to calm the sections of supporters, ”continues François Stock.

It was a waste of time because a few days later, after another poor performance at home against Montpellier, a hundred Losc supporters invaded the lawn at the end of the match and came to tell the players how they felt.

The divorce is consummated because the next day, Losc files a complaint against several members of the DVE, the most important group of supporters of the club.

The case will go to court where a dozen fans will be sentenced to stadium bans.

A real trauma that will make that, despite the good results that followed in the following years, Lopez's love rating will never have been huge in the stands.

“There was a real resentment after these events.

It left its mark despite the good results.

And then, we have always been wary about its financial arrangement.

We begin to think that his departure was not such a bad thing.

Even if we cannot forget what has been done sportingly, ”concludes the Lille supporter.

Good relationship with players

The story goes that on the evening of the championship title won in Angers last May, many Losc players split a call or an SMS of thanks to Gérard Lopez.

However, the businessman had not been the president of the club for several months.

But in the minds of Lille players, the success of this incredible coronation is above all the success of the ex-president and not of his successor Olivier Létang who has never reached the same level of love in the minds of the players. .

Our file on Ligue 1

Because it is Lopez, supported by Luis Campos, who has entirely built the workforce that has become champion of France.

And this season, with rare exceptions (Gudmunsson, Onana), the group that reached the knockout stages of the Champions League is also from the Lopez heritage.

If the relations of the businessman with the players of the Girondins seem much more complicated, at Losc the proximity was essential between the two parties.

Even if the priority put on the first team has done a lot of damage to the training center where few players have emerged in recent seasons.

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