Lyon president Jean Michel Aulas has underlined his determination to restart the Ligue 1 season, while suggesting that he could sue the French state should the decision go against his club.
Aulas’ side are among the most vocal opponents of the move to shut down France’s top flight, which meant Paris Saint-Germain were crowned champions with 10 rounds of fixtures still outstanding.
Marseille and Rennes finished behind the champions in second and third to take Champions League spots while Lyon, who lay in seventh place, face a year without any type of European football.
Along with Amiens and Toulouse, who were relegated due to the early end to proceedings, Lyon have vowed to fight the move through the courts, and Aulas, who has made no secret of his fervent opposition, did not mince his words as he gears up to state his club’s case.
‘[A restart]. That is what we are going to ask for in court tomorrow,’ he explained on Wednesday to RMC ahead of the hearing.
‘The National Court will have to judge on the issue of returning to action and the way in which the stoppage came about.
‘I had a meeting this afternoon with Nasser Al-Khelaifi and the ECA, the association of European clubs and the procedure proposed by Uefa is the one that we can follow today: return to training now and play the matches in three or four weeks.’
Aulas, whose bid to overturn the previous ruling is considered to have little chance of succeeding, went on to suggest that he would hold the French state itself responsible should he fail.
‘It was the state which ordered the end of activities, so therefore they are responsible for this,’ he added, stating that the affected clubs including Lyon are ‘willing’ to start legal action that would ‘recover €800 million in probable losses’.
Ligue 1 is to date the only of Europe’s top five leagues which has opted to bring the 2019-20 campaign to a halt.
Germany’s Bundesliga was able to resume on the weekend of 18 May, while teams in England, Italy and Spain have resumed training in anticipation of returning to action in June.
