Olympique Lyon chairman Jean-Michel Aulas said yesterday he believed the club’s new stadium, scheduled to be ready a year ahead of Euro 2016, which France will host, would be delivered on time for the city to stage some matches.
Amid media reports of legal negotiations and the insertion of penalty clauses should the start of work on the venue be delayed, Aulas insisted that the project was on track in terms of finalising the structural concept and finance.
Aulas said the insertion of legal safeguards was a factor which would hold up the process but “we retain our wish of completing the ‘Stade des Lumières’ (stadium of light) for June 2015 allowing the team to move in for the 2015-2016 season and permitting Euro-2016 matches to be hosted in the (new) Olympique Lyon stadium.”
The new deadline of 2015 is still beyond the initial target of late 2014 for the stadium to come on stream.