Lille OSC

Lille

Full name	Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole
Nickname(s)	Les Dogues (the Mastiffs), LOSC
Founded	1944
Ground	Stadium Lille-Metropole – temporary, Stade Borne de l'Espoir (Capacity: 18,185)
Chairman	Michel Seydoux
Manager	Rudi Garcia
League	Ligue 1
2009–10	Ligue 1, 4th
Home colours Away colours Third colours

Lille Olympique Sporting Club Lille Métropole (French pronunciation: [lil ɔlɛ̃pik]; commonly referred to as Lille OSC, LOSC Lille, or simply Lille) is a French football club base in Lille. The club was founded in 1944 as a result of a merger between SC Fives and Olympique Lillois, which were formed in 1901 and 1902, respectively.

History

Formation

Lille Olympique Sporting Club was formed in 1944, from the merger of Olympique Lillois and SC Fives. SC Fives club gave the new club the "SC" in their name and their blue away kit, Olympique Lillois' red and white colours are still LOSC's main colours.

Recent history

However, since their return to the French Ligue 1 in 2000, after 3 seasons in Ligue 2, Lille's results have generally bettered those of their local rivals, with three Champions League participations in 2002, 2005 and 2006 and a victory in the Intertoto Cup in 2004. In the 2004/05 Ligue 1 campaign, Lille stunned many by finishing an excellent second place in the table by the end of the season, ahead of the likes of Monaco, Marseille and of course their local rivals, Lens. A title challenge had even been mounted against Lyon though it was to be a brief one despite beating them in their home game. Lille however automatically qualified for the UEFA Champions League group stages, and hoped to make a good impression in Europe by progressing through the groups. On November 2, 2005 they recorded one of the greatest results in their history by defeating Manchester United in the Champions League group phase. However, Lille were only able to pick up one point in their final two matches. They parachuted into the UEFA Cup by finishing third in their group, leaving Manchester United behind and out of Europe in fourth place. Lille's UEFA Cup run finished in the last 16, their opponent and ultimate winners of the competition Sevilla going through 2–1 on aggregate.

In the 2005/06 Ligue 1 campaign, Lille confirmed their revival finishing third, behind Lyon (a club they managed to convincingly beat home (4–0) and away (1–3)) and Bordeaux. Their regional rivals Lens once again finished behind in 4th place. The third place meant Lille qualified for the Champions League final qualifying round. They beat Rabotnički 4–0 on aggregate and qualified for the third time in six years for the Group Stage of the UEFA Champions League, without a proper stadium. In the group stage, Lille finished 2nd behind Milan, recording another great result, at San Siro, beating Milan 2–0. Going through to the last 16, Lille was drawn against old foes, Manchester United. This time, the English giants prevailed 2–0 on aggregate, avenging the previous year's humiliating defeat. The first leg was a tumultuous affair, marred by crowd trouble and refereeing controversy. Indeed during the first leg of the second round match against Manchester United in the 2006–2007 UEFA Champions League, some Lille players appeared to temporarily leave the field of play without permission after the referee, Eric Braamhaar, gave the green light [1] for Manchester United left winger Ryan Giggs to take a quick free-kick, which he ended up scoring. In fact, only the Lille Captain actually left the pitch, but only in order to formally lodge a technical complaint with the UEFA representative, this being a common practice in French football (although not a requirement for Champions League games where technical complaints can be lodged within 24h of the game being played).

In the aftermath of the game, Lille protested that the goal should be disallowed on the basis that referee Eric Braamhaar made a 'technical error' in allowing Giggs to take the free-kick without blowing his whistle after some Manchester United players appeared to ask the referee to ensure the Lille defence respected the ten yard rule. After reviewing the video evidence, the UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body decided to reject the protest, as there was no proof of a technical error. As a result, the body declared that the goal was perfectly valid.[2] In the same statement The Control and Disciplinary Body also stated they were to investigate possible violations of binding safety and security instructions by the host club, as well as the alleged improper conduct of both sets of supporters. Both clubs were fined as a result. On May 15, last day of the championship Lille failed to win and there fore failed to qualify for Champions League 2010-2011 season.

Stadium

• Stade Henri Jooris (Beginnings-1974)
• Stade Grimonprez Jooris (1974–04)
• Stadium Lille-Metropole (2004–present)
• Stade Borne de l'Espoir (2012–...)

Since the 2004/2005 season, Lille plays at Stadium Lille-Metropole, in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, next to Lille, awaiting a new venue programmed since 1999.The justice have rejected the project of Grimonprez-Jooris II, that's why Lille Métropole Communauté urbaine have chosen to build a new venue at la Haute-Borne, the Stade Borne de l'Espoir, which is on both town of Villeneuve-d'Ascq and Lezennes. The stadium capacity would be about 50000 seats, with an opening roof.This new venue would be finished in 2010.
Without a stadium suitable for European competition, the club rents other venue for UEFA Champions League

• Stade Félix Bollaert for UEFA Champions League 2001-02 and UEFA Champions League 2006-07
• Stade de France for UEFA Champions League 2005-06

Honours

• Ligue 1^[1]
  • Champions: 1945-46, 1953-54
• Coupe de France
  • Winners: 1946, 1947, 1948, 1953, 1955
• Ligue 2
  • Champions: 1963-64, 1973-74, 1977-78, 1999-2000
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Winners: 2004
• Latin Cup
  • Runner-up: 1951

Statistics

As of 30 November, 2008

• French Ligue 1 : 49 seasons, 1784 games, 640 victories, 489 draws, 655 defeats, 2,477 goals scored, 2,344 goals conceded
• UEFA Champions League : 3 participations, 24 games, 7 victories, 9 draws, 8 defeats, 22 goals scored, 17 goals conceded
• UEFA Cup: 3 participations, 18 games, 9 victories, 6 draws, 3 defeats, 19 goals scored, 11 goals conceded
• UEFA Intertoto Cup : 2 participations, Winners in 2004, 12 games, 7 victories, 4 draws, 1 defeat, 17 goals scored, 7 goals conceded

Players

Current squad

As of July 24, 2010.^[2] Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Mickaël Landreau 2 DF Mathieu Debuchy 3 DF Jerry Vandam 4 MF Florent Balmont 5 MF Idrissa Gueye 6 DF Pape N'Diaye Souare 7 MF Yohan Cabaye 8 FW Moussa Sow 9 FW Túlio de Melo 10 MF Ludovic Obraniak 12 FW Cédric Baseya 14 DF David Rozehnal 15 DF Emerson Conceição 16 GK Barel Mouko

No. Position Player 17 FW Pierre-Alain Frau 18 DF Franck Béria 21 MF Arnaud Souquet 22 DF Aurélien Chedjou 23 DF Adil Rami 24 MF Rio Mavuba (captain) 26 MF Eden Hazard 27 FW Gervinho 28 FW Emil Lyng 29 MF Stéphane Dumont 30 GK Alexandre Oukidja 31 FW Omar Wade

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Ludovic Butelle (on loan at Nîmes until the end of the 2010–11 Ligue 2 season) 11 MF Nicolas Fauvergue (on loan at Sedan until the end of the 2010–11 Ligue 2 season)

Reserve squad

As of September 1, 2009.^[2] Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Sammy N'Djock GK Thomas Lebon DF Adrien Rizzi DF David Alcibiade DF Mathieu Sauvage MF Sanaa Altama

No. Position Player MF Pierre-Baptiste Baherle MF Adama Soumaoro FW Abdoulaziz Sy FW Omar Wade FW Gianni Bruno FW Steevy Negouai

Notable players

For a complete list of Lille OSC players, see Category:Lille OSC players

Managerial history

Former coaches include Georges Heylens (1984–1989), a former Belgian international player, Jacques Santini (1989–92), who managed France between 2002 and 2004, Bruno Metsu (1992–93), who managed Senegal in the 2002 World Cup, Pierre Mankowski (1993–1994), who is the current assistant coach of the French national team and 2006 FIFA World Cup runner-up and Vahid Halilhodžić (1998–2002), who can be credited with the club's revival in the late nineties and early noughts.

The current coach, Rudi Garcia replaced Claude Puel, at the beginning of the 2008 season, Puel had been with Lille since 2002. Thanks to his successes with the club, Puel had been approached by FC Porto to replace José Mourinho and Lyon to replace Alain Perrin; he finally decided to join Lyon after six seasons at the club.

^[3]

References

External links

• (French) Official Website
• (English) UEFA Club profile