General Introduction

As with all of our guides, if there is anything missing from the following pages that you need to know then feel free to drop us an email and we'll do our best to find it out for you.

Brief Ground Location

The Lille Metropole stadium is actually located in the nearby town of Villeneuve D'Ascq. The Metropole is only a temporary home while Lille's own purpose-built stadium is being constructed. The stadium reaches the standards required of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, but not the Champions League.

Villeneuve is around 10 minutes from Lille by public transport (the local VAL trains), and only a couple of minutes by car.

Brief Club History

LOSC Lille was formed in 1944 as a merger of two clubs, Olympique Lillois and SC Fives. Despite some success early on in their history (a couple of league titles and runners-up positions in the late 40s and early 50s), Lille have typically been overshadowed by their local rivals RC Lens.

In recent years, however, Lille have experienced something of a resurgence. After returning to the top flight in 2000, they have managed to qualify for the Champions League on 3 occasions (2002, 2005, 2006) and even beat Manchester United in one of their campaigns, in the year that saw United crash out of the group stages, finishing bottom.

Their 2nd placed finish in 2005 is their best recent performance, although their last silverware came as Champions of Ligue 2 in 2000.

Club Honours

Olympique Lillois won Ligue 1 in 1933, but since the club has been one entity, they've won two titles - in 1946 and 1954. They've finished runners up in the top flight on six occasions.

Between 1946 and 1955 they won the French Cup on 5 occasions and were runners-up on another 2.

They were also winners of the Intertoto Cup in 2004.