Last week at the Emirates Stadium, OL players returned with London’s smile. But not only because they took a nice option (1-2) on qualifying in the Champions League finals. Seeing a speaker stormed by 40,000 fans also pleasantly surprised. A very different situation for the match back to the OL Park, where the enclosure should attract only 20,000 curious maximum. Vincent Ponsot, general manager of Olympique Lyonnais féminin, deplores this difference but he can only bow to the work done in England to fill the stadiums during meetings of professional women’s teams.
Vincent Ponsot wanted to remind us that football bodies must act in order not to take too much delay compared to what is being done overseas. “The English, what they do is extraordinary. They surfed the Euro 2022 that they organised and won,” he said.
Men’s football attracts more spectators while women’s teams are less prominent. OL players would like to be able to play in loud, but Vincent Ponsot knows this is difficult. According to him, the Fenottes have the merit of remaining competitive over time, but they lack the love of the public.
Kadidiatou Diani, OL’s third-best scorer in the First League, with 10 goals and 6 assists, is aware of the progress made with regard to the influx of matches in the Champions League but she would like to see it also in the championship. “There were 40,000 people in Arsenal. We hope to do as well, to be supported as well,” she said.
Damaris Egurrola, Dutch team-mate of Diani, was happy to play in front of tens of thousands of people in London and she hopes that France will catch up with her delay in terms of the number of stadiums.
Vincent Ponsot believes that the attractiveness of a club requires the filling of stadiums. If the best players want to evolve in full stadiums, then France has to spend the second to catch up with the English. But he assures that OL will remain competitive over the next few years despite the difficulties encountered regarding the difficult dossier of filling the stadiums.
In its strategy to enhance its spans, Olympique Lyonnais focuses on innovation. Vincent Ponsot concedes that this is part of a more global will to diversify the public, in particular by broadening the family base and doing things differently. He also thinks about people who regularly go to Paulo Fonseca men’s matches. But he knows the task is going to be complex.
This Sunday (6 p.m.), the Fenottes will have to get their ticket for the final of the C1 in front of a stadium that will only be filled with one third of its capacity, if not less.