2023-09-21 01:25:12
“At no time did we make death threats or ask for Marcelino’s resignation,” the leaders of two OM supporters clubs, the South Winners and the Dodger’s, assured AFP on Wednesday, while the club Marseille is plunged into chaos. “We want to meet the main shareholder who is Frank McCourt: he must come as quickly as possible to listen to what we have to say to him,” now demands Rachid Zeroual, head of the South Winners (7,200 subscribers).
After a stormy meeting on Monday between supporter groups and management, which gave rise to a press release from OM that was ambiguous to say the least, the club sank a little deeper into crisis on Wednesday with the announcement of the departure of the Spanish coach Marcelino, who arrived this summer. An announcement that comes at a very bad time, on the eve of OM’s entry into the Europa League in Amsterdam. In its press release, OM criticizes representatives of supporters’ associations without naming them for “individual attacks” and the “threat of a ‘war'”.
“They remained pale and without response”
“There was no death threat, it’s true that we talked about the team, what’s happening at the moment (…) It’s true that they remained pale and without response, both on the technical point and on the questions of the training center raised by Rachid,” assures AFP Christian Castaldo, of the Dodgers, who represents 3,200 subscribers.
Rachid Zeroual says he alone “raised certain problems” that parents reported to him about the training center and he alone mentioned the resignation but without asking for it from President Pablo Longoria and his three main collaborators.
“Get out of the club, as they say in Marseille”
“We asked questions and we didn’t have an answer so it’s true that I told them: ”if it’s true and you don’t give us an answer, I’m asking for your resignation, because it is much more serious. If it’s psychological harassment of children and parents, you should resign, get out of the club as they say in Marseille,” he reports from their premises located in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Europe of the 2nd city of France. “But at no time did I make death threats to anyone, neither myself nor anyone else,” he insists, alongside the South Winners’ lawyer.
Pablo Longoria was named president shortly after the attack on the Commanderie in January 2021 by supporters, furious with the management of the then president, Jacques-Henri Eyraud. Several supporters had been sentenced to prison, either firm or suspended, for these incidents, including Rachid Zeroual who appealed against his sentence at first instance to nine months in prison, five of which were suspended, according to the South Winners’ lawyer.
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