The day after an eventful meeting with representatives of Olympique de Marseille supporters, the club’s management decided on Tuesday to step back in order to study its options.
Olympique de Marseille has a crisis. While the season has just started, club president Pablo Longoria and other members of management – Javier Ribalta, Pedro Iriondo and Stéphane Tessier – have decided to step back, Franceinfo:sport has learned, confirming information revealed by AFP, Tuesday September 19. There is no question of resignation yet, but the leaders have decided to take the time to reflect, after a stormy meeting with club supporters.
Monday September 18, the day after a very dull Ligue 1 match at the Vélodrome stadium against Toulouse (0-0), OM leaders met with representatives of supporters associations at the Robert-Louis training center. Dreyfus. These latter “expressed their wish to see the current OM board resign.specified the Marseille club in a press release published at the end of the evening, which does not indicate the withdrawal of Longoria and the other Marseille leaders.
“The threat of war has been issued”
“The threat of a “war” against them was issued, as long as they did not resign“, it is indicated in this press release. Faced with these criticisms, management has therefore decided to take a step back, being unable to “tolerate individual attacks and any form of unfounded public defamation“. “A relationship based on intimidation cannot guarantee the minimum acceptable conditions so that the club’s board can continue to invest in the transformation of OM”insists the club.
No information has yet filtered out regarding the future of coach Marcelino, appointed at the start of the summer to replace Igor Tudor, who led OM to 3rd place in Ligue 1 in 2022-2023. The Croatian coach finally left the club for “personal reasons”, without elaborating further on his choice. His successor is close to President Longoria, who worked with him in Huelva and Valencia.
The Marcelino style does not impress the supporters
Since the start of the Ligue 1 season, Marseille have not lost a single match, with two wins and three draws in five days. But Marcelino’s style of play did not excite the supporters and the club missed qualification for the Champions League, being eliminated in early August by the Greek club Panathinaikos. A failure attributed to the current management by the supporters, who also criticize it for numerous changes within the workforce and among the management players.
This crisis broke out very early in the OM season and at a particularly inopportune moment. The Marseille club is due to begin its European campaign on Thursday evening, with a Europa League match on the pitch at Ajax Amsterdam. A meeting which will take place in a very particular context for the Marseille players and supporters, and without the management of the club, who will not make the trip to the Netherlands according to Radio France.