The Alternate Soccer Universe: Ligue Première De Football -- Corsaires (January 22)

[MDGP]

Wow, it's nearly been two months since my last team... I haven't even seen the comments since my last one, thanks for those, guys! (Naoned, I'd love to work with you on some of the names. I'll throw you a PM).

With that, I present the fourth team in the LPF. Despite being one of the largest cities in France, Lyon did not have an LPF franchise until 1963, due to Lyon having a team in a competing league which folded in 1959. Four years later, A.S. Lyon was established as a second division squad. The team has had an extremely up and down history, bouncing between the top three divisions (the third and fourth divisions were established in 1974) from 1963-1996. Since 1997, Lyon has remained in the top division with four successful seasons between 2003 and 2006, in which Lyon finished in the top 3 each year. In 2005, Lyon took home their only championship. Since, the squad has been somewhat unsuccessful, finishing above the top 9 only twice. In the final match of 2014, striker Édouard St. Martin scored 4 goals and had 2 assists in a 7-1 rout of Bastille de Grenoble, saving Lyon from relegation.

CREST

Lyon's crest was redesigned for the 1997 season . The shape of the crest is inspired by the renovated facade of the Opéra Nouvel. Inside the crest is a lion based on the lion found on the city's coat of arms and flag. Emitting from the lion's mouth is a conical shape representing both a visual interpretation of a roar and a shining beam of light. The beam of light is inspired by the city's cinema history and the city's famed Fête des lumières. The two stars above the lion are also representative of the night sky under which the festival occurs.

UNIFORMS

Lyon is outfitted by Nike and features Euronews as the shirt sponsor. The shirt features a single star representing the team's championship. The primary kit is white featuring alternating blue and gold diagonal pinstripes. The clash kit is navy blue with white and gold diagonal pinstripes. Both kits have navy shorts and socks that match the shirts.

As always, C+C is greatly appreciated.

[jaker52]

Beautiful. as is the rest of this.

[chipper12]

I'm loving this series. As a Lyon fan it feels weird to see a Lyon team not in red white and blue but I thin that the colours you have are great look as well. I'm really loving your French part of the series as I absoulutly love France keep up the good work.

[chipper12]

I'm loving this series. As a Lyon fan it feels weird to see a Lyon team not in red white and blue but I thin that the colours you have are great look as well. I'm really loving your French part of the series as I absoulutly love France keep up the good work.

[jaker52]

I'm loving this series. As a Lyon fan it feels weird to see a Lyon team not in red white and blue but I thin that the colours you have are great look as well. I'm really loving your French part of the series as I absoulutly love France keep up the good work.

IMO too many french teams use those colors. Only2 of the Ligue 1 don't use either of the colors 4 use both, red and black are still the most overused (9) French teams seem to have little variety in color scheme

[FlyingLamprey]

Oh wow I was worried this series had been abandoned, but I'm so glad to see it up and running again. Lyon looks fantastic, as well as their uniforms. No complaints from my end. Keep up the good work man!

[MDGP]

After another extended break from the series, exactly one year after it began, I'm finally ready to present the next team.

One of the original 20 franchises of the LPF, F.C. Normandie is one of the league's most historic franchises. Despite being located in Rouen, the squad's original roster consisted of players from all over the region, which led the team to refer itself as Normandie. The squad found early success, winning the 3rd and 4th modern LPF championships, and adding another two more championships by 1957. Normandie has had a long history with F.C. Cuyahoga of the American Soccer Federation. The pairing began in 1939 when Jewish player Maxime Lafitte, sensing the impending danger, fled with his family to the United States, where he joined Cuyahoga's roster. While in Cleveland, he fell in love with American Football, and joined the Cleveland Browns in 1946. While it is a coincidence that the Browns shared Normandie's color scheme, the use similar logos is not. Legend states that Lafitte encouraged Paul Brown to use a Lutin, a french version of a brownie, as the logo. Starting in 1948, Lafitte took over as coach of Cuyahoga and established a preseason tune up match with Normandie. Ever since, the two squads have met regularly for preseason matches. In 2008, the cities of Rouen and Cleveland were officially twinned, the sports history between the two being cited as one of the reasons for the move.

CREST

Normandie features a very simple crest (FOURTH WALL BREAK: I felt like I'd been putting too much into the last few crests, really trying too hard to milk every last piece of symbolism into them. So for Normandie, I decided to go for a more stripped down look). The shield features a single element, a Lutin (similar to a hobgoblin, elf, or brownie), a mischievous mythical creature which has historically been "found" in Normandy. In the Lutin's hand is a telescope, which is meant to honor the town and region's navigational history.

UNIFORMS

Normandie's orange and brown striped look has been around in some form since the squad's inception. The players originally chose the look to save money, as the shirts did not clash with any of the other teams. This meant that clash kits were not needed at first. As time went on, and orange teams began entering the league, Normandie added a white clash.

In 2013 Puma took over the squad's contract, and led many to fear drastic changes to the team's classic look. The change coincided with a slight change to the crest (removing extraneous details and simply going with a silhouette) had a severely overblown reaction from the public for not being changed enough. The uniforms did not change much, taking on a slight modernization, but keeping the same general look. The biggest change was the crest. Puma removed the shield and simply placed the brownie on the chest, creating an interesting symmetry between the Puma mark and team logo. The team insisted that the shorts feature the full crest (the words above the crest are only featured on non jersey items). The shirt sponsor is Air France.

PRIMARY

The primary uniforms have simple orange and brown hoops with white numbers and white shorts. The socks match the jersey. The crest and stars are also featured in white.

CLASH

The clash uniform is the team's traditional white and also features stripes. These stripes are thinner, featuring a brown and orange stripe surrounding the sponsor logo. The rest of the stripes are on the lower torso (as my version of Puma loves using) and features a reflective striping, (similar to the striping on NYCFC's uniforms). The numbers, name on back, and crest are all featured in brown, while the four stars are in orange.

[Darknes]

Good to see this back, It does seem rather Browns-ish...I like it~

[MDGP]

Today I've got a special double presentation featuring the LPF's two Parisian teams, Olympique Paris and Club Elysée-Paris.

Olympique Paris is easily the most successful club in LPF history, winning 34 championships since its inception in 1921. Despite winning a championship in every decade, Les Champions struggled throughout the 90's, being relegated in 1994 (only to jump back into the league the next season). The team's name was derived from the 1924 Paris Olympics, where France was represented by the squad. The crest features a torch, representing the Olympic connections of the squad. Surrounding the torch is a banner featuring the phrase "Honneur, Fraternité, Fierté" meaning "Honor, Brotherhood, Pride."

Olympique have worn generally traditional uniforms throughout its history, featuring a red shirt with blue pants in some form every years since 1967. The road jersey is white with red-white-blue racing stripes down the sleeves and sides. The third jersey is meant to emulate general modern jerseys, which do not adhere to the history of the club. The main feature of the uniforms are the 34 stars on the back of the jersey. Olympique's owner, deciding that the squad deserved to have every championship represented, decided that each star would be placed on the jersey. This look is loathed by other teams, who think of it at arrogant, and designers, who think it looks gaudy.

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Founded in 1928, Club Elysée-Paris is named after the neighborhood in which the team plays. Despite being unconventional, the team's official name does not include the sport, or the type of club, and no explanation has ever been given as to why. The crest features a monogram CEP with three stars, representing the club's founders, the brothers L'Étoile, the three of whom also played on the squad. The squad was dominant during the early 1950's, and remains the league's most popular team, but championships continue to elude the franchise.

CEP also features traditional uniforms, a white jersey with striped sleeves. The current uniforms also feature the obligatory side stripe that Nike puts on their jerseys. The clash jersey is one of the squads traditional colors. Since 1957, CEP has worn either green, orange, or blue clash uniforms. This year is a neon orange color that Nike enjoys pushing with a black chest stripe and numbers.

The third jersey features a grandient-like design, moving from yellow to orange to blue. The angled stripes form ridges, that Nike describes as emulating the "iconic stairs on the banks of the Parisian Rivers that pay homage to the jaws of husky stadium" (okay, the last part isn't true, but you get the gist). Each uniform features Saint-Gobain as a shirt sponsor.

[Darknes]

I'd buy an Olympique Home Jersey.

I'm just being Curious, I know you have Spain planned after this but are you thinking of making a German League?

[MDGP]

I'd buy an Olympique Home Jersey.

I'm just being Curious, I know you have Spain planned after this but are you thinking of making a German League?

I certainly hope to. Ideally, I'd like to do a league for each of the Big Six countries of the US, France, Spain, England/UK, Germany, and Italy. I don't know if my time constraints will allow it to happen within five years, but we'll see, haha.

[mbannon92]

Great work on both. The crests are both really good. I love the uniqueness of the Olympique crest, and the CEP lockup with the Stars looks nice. The kits are all really solid as well, especially CEPs.

[FlyingLamprey]

Hey, this series returns! Good looks for the Parisian clubs overall. Both crests are clean yet unique, and the kits are classy. My one complaint is that the step pattern on Elysee's third kit is harder to notice on the top two transitions, and I originally didn't notice them. Also, I'd love to see you do concepts for those other three countries! Beyond that, not much to say. Great job once again.

[MDGP]

Traveling to the Auvergne region, we meet the squad from Clermont-Ferrand. F.C. Clermont-Ferrand has had limited top flight success, generally avoiding relegation, but almost always finishing in the bottom 10. Founded in 1951, the squad spent much of its first several decades bouncing between the top two divisions. The squad has accrued zero championships and a single Champions League appearance in 2008. In the round of 16, F.C.C.F. led F.C. Tyne 4-1 after the first leg. In an unprecedented collapse, they lost the second leg 5-0, which not only eliminated the squad from the European Champions league, but also from what would have been the squad's first Club World Championship appearance. Since, F.C.C.F. has not finished above 12th, as several players were lost to transfers to high paying Spanish clubs.

Clermont-Ferrand's crest is inspired by Frédéric Bartholdi's statue of Vercingétorix located at the Place de Jaude in the city's main square. The crest was initially designed in the 1970's and was redesigned in 2009 as a part of the "new era" of Clermont-Ferrand soccer (which, as discussed earlier, didn't happen). The design was extremely popular with the team's supporters, being a simple modernization of the original logo, similar to the Arizona Cardinals' logo change.

UNIFORMS

C-F has traditionally worn a plain green jersey over white shorts and a yellow and green clash uniform. Outfitted by adidas, the uniforms feature the newest jersey cut for the new season.

On the chest of the primary uniforms, are two sublimated sashes. Within the sashes are sublimated stripes matching the main color of the jersey. Otherwise, the main features of the uniform are standard adidas fare. The three stripes on the shoulder are slightly darker than the main jersey color. The bottom stripe is white to match the shorts. The design of the stripe is meant to emulate the gothic architecture of some of the buildings in Clermont-Ferrand. This has been criticized for being a "generic" representation.

The clash uniform is the squad's traditional clash design, featuring a yellow shirt with a green chest stripe. The shirt features green accents and a solid green bottom stripe. The shorts are green with sublimated darker green stripes which can be paired with primary uniform (and regularly is).

[MDGP]

Another long break, this time due to a big change to the presentation. I've updated my presentation with a brand new, homemade template.

Stade Lille was founded in 1921 as one of the original five team tournament. Lille has had moderate success in the LPF, with its strongest stretch between 1978 and 1981, when the squad won three of its five championships. In 2008, the squad had an extreme off year due to injuries to 7 of the team's starters at the same time. The squad fell to the second division for the 2009 season. Upon the return of team's starters, Lille dominated the second division, recording the only perfect season in the history of professional soccer in France. Since returning to the LPF, the squad had not dropped below the top 6 in league play, making the Champions League in 2012.

CREST

Like Reims, Stade Lille's crest was designed to honor the soldiers who fought in World War I. The main feature of the crest is a medal. The medal itself features a 10-pointed star. The outer portion of the star represents the outline of the Citadel of Lille. The inner star and soccer ball represent the cannonballs lodged into the buildings during the siege of Lille by Austria after the French Revolution. The red pentagon below is based on the building of La Voix Du Nord, a newspaper company that owned the team from 1956 through 1972. At the top of the crest is a fleur-de-lis in black, mimicking the shape of the fleur-de-lis in the city's crest. The colors Red, Gold, and Black are based on the architecture of the city's main square.

UNIFORMS

ORIGINAL DESIGN

Stade Lille sport classic uniforms and are outfitted by adidas. The home kit features sublimated hoops on the front, with gold accents and black adidas stripes. The shorts are black with gold adidas stripes and numbers. The clash kits are all white featuring black accents. Upon the chest are vertical stripes colored black, gold, red and feature a gradient to disappear behind the shirt sponsor. On the neck of each jersey is a black fleur-de-lis.

[mbannon92]

Absolutely beautiful crest, Lafarge. Such a unique composition, and the meaning behind it is really interesting. Red-black-gold is also one of my favorite color combos, so nice work there too. The kits are really solid. The home has good color balance, and the white clash is sharp. The only thing I'm not sold on is the double outline on the numbers, just because you don't really see that in soccer. (With the exception of the EPL, but those strokes are so thin you barely notice them.)

[MDGP]

Absolutely beautiful crest, Lafarge. Such a unique composition, and the meaning behind it is really interesting. Red-black-gold is also one of my favorite color combos, so nice work there too. The kits are really solid. The home has good color balance, and the white clash is sharp. The only thing I'm not sold on is the double outline on the numbers, just because you don't really see that in soccer. (With the exception of the EPL, but those strokes are so thin you barely notice them.)

Thanks, mbannon! To be honest, this crest was an absolute pain to figure out, so I'm really glad to hear that you like it. I was also interested to find out that you were right about the numbers. I never really noticed that before.

And while part of my intention is to combine the aesthetics of multiple sports in some aspects, no other team in this league had a double outline, so I think I'm gonna stick with it. That also allowed me to update the rest of the look to make it even cleaner by eliminating red in its entirety.

[the_grateful_ted]

That crest is gorgeous, kits look good. Amazing work sir nice job

[jmoe12]

Just went through this series again. I had forgotten how original and creative these concepts are! Love Lille as well as the new template. Excited to see more from you soon!

[SSmith48]

Don't know what to say! Great job!