Women’s football continues to set trends in its global growth, and one of them is the separation of brands between men’s and women’s teams. This Monday, Michele Kang, president and owner of the Olympique Lyonnais women’s team, announced that the club will now be called OL Lyonnes, accompanied by a new logo that reinforces its identity.
This change seeks to further professionalize the women’s soccer environment and give the team a unique identity, without losing its connection to the Olympique Lyonnais family.
A new name and crest for OL Lyonnes
“This is a new beginning for our team. It’s not just about a change of name or logo, but about redefining everything that is possible for women’s football. Our goal has always been to professionalize the environment in which we work,” explained Michele Kang during the announcement.
The new OL Lyonnes crest retains the red, blue and golden yellow colors, representative of the city of Lyon. According to Kang, “the players have this desire to win, this positive energy, that’s what has defined this team and what will continue to define it. The three crowns in the logo symbolize that we are champions.”
Michele Kang stressed the importance of the women’s team having a separate identity from the men’s team: “They need their own identity. We want to give them the identity that is theirs, but always within the context of the Olympique Lyonnais family. We also want to make sure that this identity illustrates the city and the Lyon metropolitan area. We want to say that we are ‘Lyonnes’ and not ‘Lyons’” (feminine, and not masculine).
Training center for women’s football
As part of this new phase, Kang announced the creation of a “100% women’s training center” at Meyzieu. According to Vincent Ponsot, the training center will feature several training camps, an adapted weight room, a medical and performance center with advanced technology. “It will be a place where players can feel good and stay. We are in talks with the city of Meyzieu to finalize this project,” explained Ponsot.
This campus seeks to provide players with a high-performance environment that will boost their sporting and personal development.
The Groupama Stadium, home of OL Lyonnes
Another major new development is that OL Lyonnes will play all its home games at the 57,000-capacity Groupama Stadium. “The women deserve to play in a better stadium,” said Kang. “We’ve done a lot of work to see what that could look like. Having such a big stadium can be intimidating, but we are realistic. Our players deserve to play in the best possible environment.”
Kang also stressed the importance of providing a consistent fan experience, “We can’t develop a fan experience if fans change stadiums for every game. We want to increase our fan base. We decided that Groupama Stadium is the right home for us.”
