Olympique Lyonnais resumed training on June 29 with a single focus: preparing for the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League, scheduled for August 4-5 (first leg) and August 11 (return). Should the team advance, they would face the playoff stage within the following fortnight. The Lyon-based club’s management has carefully weighed the calendar, seeking to avoid any conflict between domestic and European commitments.

In a strategic move, Olympique Lyonnais submitted a formal request to the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) to postpone their Ligue 1 opener at Toulouse FC. This request was explicitly conditional on qualifying for the Champions League playoffs. The club argued that maintaining peak performance during potential European campaigns should take precedence over early domestic fixtures, drawing parallels with similar concessions granted to Paris Saint-Germain in previous seasons.

The LFP’s administrative board convened via videoconference on Monday evening and delivered its verdict: the postponement request was unanimously rejected. The governing body cited concerns over disrupting the opening weekend of Ligue 1+, which will now broadcast all matches, as the primary reason for denying the request. Officials emphasized the importance of maintaining a full and uninterrupted fixture list from the competition’s inception.