Italian coach Fabio Grosso has been fired by Lyon after less than three months in charge of the struggling seven-time French champions.
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Grosso was fired on Thursday after just eight league games in charge, having been hired in September as a replacement for Laurent Blanc with the mission to put the team back on track.
Blanc left with Lyon in last place with only one point from four games. The club remain bottom of the league after Grosso's departure, with seven points from 12 matches and just one win.
The 46-year-old Grosso, who played 75 games for Lyon from 2007-09 and won the World Cup with Italy in 2006, had a contract until the end of the season.
In October, he was injured when the Lyon team bus was attacked by fans throwing stones after a game at Marseille, which left him bleeding from a cut to his face.
The club, owned by American businessman John Textor, said Pierre Sage would be in charge of preparations for Lyon's match at Lens on Saturday.
The prospect of relegation is real for Lyon, a storied club known for a record run of seven straight league titles from 2002 to 2008. The last time Lyon played in the second division was during the 1988-89 season.
The signs of Lyon's decline have been obvious in the past couple of years after finishing in the top five spots from 1999 to 2019.
The seventh-place finish in 2020 was considered a blip because Lyon also reached the semi-finals of the Champions League that year.
But they finished eighth in 2022 and seventh last season, missing out on European competition.
Australian Associated Press
