Lyon eye long game to European and Ligue 1 glory as pompous PSG come to town
Lyon host Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1 on Sunday eveningLeader Lyon are seen by many in France as doing things admirablyPSG meanwhile are viewed as pompous and arrogant around FranceAtletico Madrid hammered rivals Real Madrid 4-0 on Saturday By
23:52 GMT, 7 February 2015
09:27 GMT, 8 February 2015
If I’m not mistaken, Zlatan Ibrahimovic perpetrated a Marie Antoinette moment just after Paris Saint-Germain’s defeat of Rennes nine days ago.During the 1-0 win, which prepared them perfectly for Sunday’s top-of-the-table visit to leaders Lyon, the Parc des Princes fans once again whistled and ‘rhubarb-rhubarbed’ their unhappiness with PSG’s lack of ‘élan’.Asked about it, Zlatan declared that the peasants were revolting.
Paris Saint-Germain striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic reacts during the match against Rennes last month
Ibrahimovic vies with Lille midfielder Rio Mavuba for the ball during the match last week‘Maybe they ate caviar before we came,’ he sneered dismissively from on high, perhaps forgetting the word for cake.‘We don’t know what they want. We play good, they whistle. We play bad, they whistle.’And the concept that PSG’s has become a self-obsessed, out-of-touch court, revolving around the foolishness and self-indulgence of Zlatan the Sun King (or should that be ‘sinking’?) forced its way through on Tuesday night, too.PSG won at Lille to reach the League Cup Final. But had Lille piped ‘Hi-ho, hi-ho it’s off to work we go’ from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through speakers in their post-match mixed-zone, they would have scored a victory for the people. Certainly the fans and the media.Led by Zlatan, players like Maxwell, Zoumana Camara, Marquinhos, Edinson Cavani and Lucas, all in red-hooded sweatshirts, cravenly trotted behind the self-appointed Roi Soleil as he barked the order: ‘Follow me, follow me... nobody talks!’‘Why nobody talks?’ demanded a reporter. ‘Because I’m the boss’ tossed back Zlatan over his shoulder.Just another brace of incidents in Zlatan’s descent into physical decrepitude and then irrelevance?Or emblematic of PSG in isolation from the rest of French football?
Ibrahimovic (right), David Luiz and their PSG team-mates are being seen in France as pompousIn that sense, Sunday night at the Stade Gerland is the beginning not only of the entertaining three-way push for the title (including Marseille) but a hint at a wider referendum on French football.PSG have not won hearts or minds. Not only in their own stadium, but more widely.Obviously, given their wealth, the blue-collar mass of French football want to knit by the side of the demise of the aristocracy.That’s only natural. But Laurent Blanc, and now Zlatan, are symbols of the first era of Parisian mega-wealth - and how it’s in decline.Blanc will be super fortunate to survive past this summer given that neither his personality nor his football convince.Ibrahimovic has played magnificently but won’t stay beyond the end of his contract and is quite evidently in physical decline.Equally, many in French football used to feel similarly about Lyon.Having never won the title before 2002, they repeated the feat seven times until 2008.
Lyon midfielder Corentin Tolisso (right) celebrates with Mouhamadou Dabo after scoring against Metz
Lyon head coach Hubert Fournier reacts during his side's draw against Monaco in Ligue 1They even reached the Champions League semi-finals as recently as 2010 having often excelled in that competition - winning three and drawing four of their first seven competitive meetings with Real Madrid.But Lyon president Jean Michel Aulas saw the lie of the land long before Qatar money bought PSG.After a 5-2 thrashing by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in March 2009, he announced to the French media that the country’s domestic football was pathetic - ‘third division’ in European terms. He savaged the pitches, the stadia, the development but, above all, the investment of intelligence, forward-planning, marketing and awareness of the football public.So, six-years on, meet a man of his word. That rarest of breed: a visionary, open, ambitious, ‘judge my words by my actions’ kinda guy. Aulas has ripped up not only the squad but his club’s philosophy of buying foreign stars.He set out on what has been a thorny and debilitating project to construct a new, larger stadium and has continued to both speak out, and act, on the need to modernise and re-construct almost all of French club football.
Lyon defender Lindsay Rose runs during a training session ahead of the PSG clash this weekendHe has helped push through FFP, argues for an 18-team Ligue 1, the scrapping of the League Cup and harangues the short-sighted.Creditably, during Lyon’s rebuilding since their last title win, the club has dropped out of the top three just twice in six seasons.But if Hubert Fournier’s team can win on Sunday night, then push on to the title, many will view it as a huge and just reward for a strategy of cleverly calculated risk and putting money where the mouth is.Aulas says: ‘Stadium construction has taken a little longer than expected. It should be ready by the end of this year. Suddenly we’ll have nearly 60,000 capacity, up by 20,000, so filling it is a worry. But it will be easier to fill a stadium custom-built for families and businesses.’
Ibrahimovic (right) views with Lille defender Marko Basa (centre) during the French League Cup matchDuring a process which has nearly ruined big clubs in the past (Chelsea, Valencia), Aulas has cut the player salary bill by 40 per cent. Partly achieved by selling stars, partly by using home-bred youth, partly by recruiting cheaper players, it’s an equation which can lead to the ‘big stadium, poor team, low attendance’ nightmare.Hence the importance of how Lyon are performing this season. To move onward and upwards, the team must make the new stadium magnetic. Now they have to stop selling.‘We’ve invested EUR400million in this project,’ he said. ‘More than Monaco and PSG combined have spent on buying players recently!‘But we project it should initially generate EUR40/50m, rising to EUR64/80m if we consolidate. Then eventually to EUR200m. That’s without selling players. Figures like this would put us back in the European top 10.’And they would be welcome.
Lyon forward Gnaly Albert Maxwell Cornet controls the ball during training on Friday
Atletico Madrid continued their recent derby dominance by hammering city rivals Real Madrid 4-0 on Saturday.Tiago Mendes opened the scoring for the reigning champions at a raucous Vicente Calderon after 13 minutes and substitute Saul Niguez doubled the lead with an acrobatic goal just moments after replacing Koke.Antoine Griezmann and Mario Mandzukic added to the goal glut in the second half to leave stunned Real thoroughly humiliated.The win saw Atletico cut the gap to league-leaders Real to four points and ensured they remain undefeated in six Madrid derbies since losing the Champions League Final last May.
Atletico Madrid midfielder Tiago celebrates giving his side the lead against rivals Real Madrid on Saturday
Saul Niguez doubles Atletico's lead with a superb overhead kick just four minuted after the first goal
Cristiano Ronaldo looks dejected after Real Madrid concede two goals inside the opening 20 minutes
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扫描下载二维码YOU ARE HERE: &&Asia: Company declares bankruptcy, leaving $4.4 billion in debts. Experts say move could chill foreign investment.|MAGGIE FARLEY | TIMES STAFF WRITER
SHANGHAI — In one of China's biggest corporate collapses, the investment arm of Guangdong province declared bankruptcy Sunday, leaving debts of nearly $4.4 billion to mostly foreign lenders, who had believed the government would guarantee the loans.But in a lesson for both reckless Chinese borrowers and risk-taking foreign lenders, officials said Sunday that there were no guarantees on loans to Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp., known as Gitic,Authorities shut down Gitic, China's second-largest trust and investment company, in October after it missed large debt payments and its management came under investigation."Gitic's board decided to file for bankruptcy because of massive internal and external debt, extremely chaotic management and liabilities that seriously exceeded assets," said Wu Jiesu, head of the central bank-appointed liquidation committee.But the move surprised parties on all sides, who had assumed that Gitic, one of China's best-known borrowers on world capital markets, was too big and well-connected to be allowed to fail.Gitic's closure has caused foreign bankers to drastically reduce new lending to Chinese entities and to closely examine loans to other trust companies. But despite the short- term pain, say analysts, the Chinese authorities are doing exactly what international economists have been encouraging it--and other troubled Asian governments--to do: clear out failed institutions instead of bailing them out."The closure of Gitic will send the right message out to all parties," said Fred Hu, executive director of Asian economic research at investment bank Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong. "Foreign banks must be very, very cautious in evaluating credit-worthiness. They can't think their loans will be guaranteed by the government. For domestic borrowers, it's a wake-up call: They can't engage in borrowing sprees and be bailed out by the government. From now on, we should see greater discipline on all sides."Gitic representatives told a meeting of about 200 local and foreign investors Sunday that individual Chinese creditors and small investors would be paid back first, in accordance with Chinese law.One of the thorniest issues to be resolved is the priority for repayment. Despite earlier assurances that foreign creditors would receive priority treatment, trustees said international institutions--including Citibank, Chase Manhattan and Merrill Lynch--must get in line with the rest of the creditors for repayment. The company has assets of $2.6 billion, a spokesman said. It was unclear when or how much of the debt could be repaid."There are more or less 25,000 individual Chinese creditors who will be paid first," Gitic spokesman Wu Xiaohua told reporters. "Foreign creditors will be repaid in accordance with international laws, which means they will not be getting back every cent."Gitic has about 240 major creditors, including 135 foreign institutions dominated by Japanese and European banks. Authorities hint that loans that were registered with the government will be dealt with first, and those that bypassed bureaucratic formalities will have to take their chances."This will certainly put a chill on future lending to China," said one U.S. banker.Gitic and hundreds of other investment companies were set up in the 1980s to help channel foreign financing into the country as Communist China shifted toward a market economy. These "windows" into China were often backed by local governments, making the trust and investment companies, or ITICs, seem as secure as sovereign risk.Money poured in from international investors eager to ride the country's strong economic growth and huge infrastructure projects. Gitic officials were known in Hong Kong for their highflying lifestyles, Mercedes-Benzes and personal stashes of cash.But as China opened up its economy and financiers could invest directly in projects, the ITICs turned to more aggressive gambits to keep the money flowing. Once a model of successful "red capitalism" in Guangdong, China's wealthiest province, Gitic and its subsidiaries racked up billions of dollars of bad investments in property and stock speculation. Gitic became instead a symbol of the weakness of China's financial system and Beijing's fierce resolve to reform it."Quite a few of the ITICs have run high financial risks," said Zhang Lei, an economics professor at Shanghai Finance and Economics University."In the past, they didn't worry about getting into trouble, because the local government acts as a strong backstop to save them and support them."But after Premier Zhu Rongji called for a crackdown on financial excesses last fall, it became clear that there were no more blank checks. "Gitic was chosen as a model to others to let them know if they run too high risks, this is what will happen," Zhang said.The government concedes that as many as one-third of the country's 440 state-owned trust companies are insolvent, and that another one-third are losing money. The government plans to consolidate the sector into a few dozen institutions.Only a handful of the other trust companies have a large amount of foreign debt.One of them, Fujian ITIC, has a U.S. dollar bond that comes due early next month and is said to have even more debt than its counterpart in Guangdong.But analysts say Beijing won't be so quick to shut down another."The government doesn't want to handle two at the same time," said Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's chief economist for greater China.