Lyon the kings of French football no more.

Long live Lyon!  The kings of French football are dead.  

Their extraordinary seven year reign as French Ligue champions is over. 

It started in May 2002 when Lyon defeated RC Lens to win the clubs first ever Ligue 1 title and finished last Saturday afternoon French time when Bordeaux beat Le Mans which made it impossible for Lyon to reclaim the title.  In between these two events Lyon was able to win the Ligue 1 title a further six times for seven all together.  Lyon are the only French club to have won the Ligue 1 title seven years in a row.

One of the most amazing things about Lyons achievement of winning seven Ligue 1 titles in a row is the lack of stability coaching wise during their successful period.  Lyon had four different coaches during the seven season period.  The first coach Jacques Santini began at Lyon at the start of the 2000-01 season and the club finished second, the next season (2001-02) Santini would lead Lyon to their inaugural Ligue 1 title.  Paul Le Guen, Lyons second coach during this period was also the most successful winning the Ligue 1 title three times (2002-03,2003-04,2004-05).  Paul Le Guen was replaced at Lyon by former Liverpool manger Gerard Houllier who lead Lyon to the 2005-06 and 2006-07  Ligue 1 titles.  Alain Perrin was coach when Lyon won the last of their seven Ligue 1 titles last season (2007-08), Alain Perrin left Lyon before the start of the current unsuccessful season.             

During the seven successful Ligue 1 campaigns Lyon had many different players play for them. This number of different players required for Lyons continued success in this period was also increased by the fact that because Lyon play in the French League which isn't one of the three big leagues of Europe.  This made it harder for the club to keep their players from the big clubs of these leagues.  Lyon lost players like Mahamadou Diarra who played in four of their championship seasons to Real Madrid.  Florent Malouda also played in four successful championship campaigns with Lyon before being signed by Chelsea.  Michael Essien also was signed by Chelsea but not before playing in two successful seasons with Lyon.  However there were three players who played in every one of Lyons seven successful seasons the Brazilian free kick specialist Juninho, the current French number one goalkeeper Gregory Coupet and French right winger/striker Sidney Govou.

Although Lyon's seven year reign as Ligue 1 champions is over, this seasons Ligue 1 winners has not yet been decided with two matches left it's between Bordeaux and Olympique Marseille. Twenty four hours after Bordeaux made it impossible for Lyon to win Ligue 1 this season and so ended Lyons reign, Lyon beat Marseille and gave Bordeaux a three point lead in the title race.  It looks likely that Lyons first act as the disposed kings of French football will have been to decide the new kings of French football.