Marseille has long become a city where the Olympique de Marseille football team suffers from situations unprecedented in any other country and caused by the club’s most radical members. The latest episode that happened last week brought down Marcelino García Toral and almost Pablo Longoria, president of the Marseille team, who, after receiving very serious threats, including against his family, decided to continue trying , to make a profound change. Right now it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen.
On Monday, a group of radicals in the Commanderie, the sports city of Marseille, made threats against the leader of Oviedo during a meeting with the sports management. Hours later the crisis broke out. Marcelino García Toral announced his irrevocable resignation on Wednesday and Longoria and his work team temporarily withdrew from their duties. This right, enshrined in the Labor Code, allows you to leave the company as long as “there is a dangerous situation affecting the physical integrity or health of the employee”.
Afterwards, Marseille owner Franck McCourt made an institutional statement in which he strongly supported his president and also predicted “profound changes” internally. However, these changes cannot take place without the full support of public authorities. Starting with the mayor of the city, Benoït Payan, who can bring about change through politics, but who instead chooses to align himself with ultra groups, the Southern Winners (who are not the most radical and have values that are contrary to others) . groups) before trying to solve the problems that are shaking the club and the city.
The public leader threw everything on its head in an interview, pointing out that the owner of OM, the North American Franck McCourt, should solve the deep crisis in which the historic French club is. “We cannot leave a club – with such a solid history, such exceptional fans, a coach who does what he can in difficult conditions – without direction, without strategy and without vision for the future. “The major shareholder is now obviously expected to address this issue,” he explained. Can you imagine a mayor in Spain sitting with an ultra group and not in the box to watch a game? We neither.
Olympique de Marseille’s problems also lie with an ultra that has been pointed out in the last few hours: Rachid Zeroual. According to sources consulted, he himself is said to have been one of the ringleaders of the threats against Pablo Longoria last Monday. However, Zeroual remains steadfast and assures that the complaint of the President of Marseille will not affect him in any way. “Longoria’s complaint? I don’t care, he can say whatever he wants. I know what I have in my hands. If you continue, it will come out for all to see. The people you look after in the training center can no longer hide. “That’s all I have to say,” he said. Emotional blackmail to seek the reaction of Longoria and her team while completely ignoring the suffering they have been through in the last few days.
French football faces an uncertain future, a league in which the ultras continue to have a very important power in the clubs’ decisions and those in charge look the other way. For now, Longoria has decided to continue at Olympique de Marseille, but is aware that countless changes must be made for them to function harmoniously and normally. Politics, for its part, which focuses so much on Kylian Mbappé through Macron, ignores the serious events of the last week. The press has been very reticent to denounce the Commandery consequences, which is further evidence that the problem has been structural in nature for some time.
The authorities who can really solve the problem prefer to turn to the owner of Olympique de Marseille, based in the United States, rather than deal with these delicate issues. Marseille travel to the Parc des Princes this Sunday to take on PSG. Although the game is the most important in French football, it is decaffeinated by the crisis facing the southern French club. Until there is an internal revolution and it no longer becomes normal for the ultras to be able to talk to the leaders, the French league will not grow enough to be considered a top-level competition.
