The Marseille Scandal – How blind ambition won and lost European glory

Write-up by Giorgio Pirelli

The stating goes that behind every wonderful man lays a fantastic woman and behind each productive football club lies a extremely ambitious gentleman.

That was surely the circumstance with the French club Olympique de Marseille of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Marseille have been the most profitable club in France as resplendent in their brilliant white soccer uniforms they won the French first division (Ligue one ) four seasons in a row, and their outstanding operate of accomplishment culminated in 1993, when they grew to become the initial at any time (and till now the only) French club to win the European Cup.

The man behind Marseille’s success was Bernard Tapie. Tapie was a extremely successful businessman and sports activities lover who previously ran a cycling group and had been a minister in the French government when he took over Marseille Football Club and made the decision to propel it to the extremely top, not just in France but all around Europe and ultimately the Planet. To pursue his vision Tapie invested a huge sum of cash in the club, signing some of the cream of European gamers of the era, like Jean-Pierre Papin, Chris Waddle, Klaus Allofs, Abedi Pelé, Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly, Rudi Völler and Eric Cantona. On the coaching front, Tapie, a hugely charismatic personality, even succeeded in persuading Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer to leave his beloved Bayern Munich to deal with the club for a season

A guy of huge ambition and drive, Bernard Tapie saw his dreams become a fact inside of just a handful of seasons, when in Could 1993. Basile Boli scored the only aim in the European Champions League ultimate versus A.C. Milan held in the Olympic Stadium in Munich. Right after 38 barren years, France could finally boast a crew that had won a main European competitors It seems unbelievable that just six weeks later on, Marseille’s and Tapie’s world would be turned upside down as he and his beloved club would be concerned in a scandal that would set the club again five years and tarnish every single victory that they had gained in the a long time that Tapie was at the helm. The scandal broke when a player from the mid-table French club Valenciennes, Christophe Robert created allegations to the press that a Marseille player Jean-Jacques Eydelie had manufactured an offer to him and to his staff- mates, to throw the game amongst the clubs that had taken location a number of weeks ahead of the ultimate. Robert admitted that he had accepted the bribe of 250,000 francs nevertheless defeat by guilt had not put in it, and alternatively had buried it in his Aunt’s backyard. The make a difference made its way into the police hand’s and soon after some grueling interrogation Eydelie admitted that he had bribed Robert, but below stress from the club’s then standard manager, Jean-Pierre Bernes.. From there on all roads lead to president Bernard Tapie. Tapie eventfully confessed that he had approved the tried bribing of the Valenciennes players as he needed to have the league title sown up so as the players could be no cost to concentrate on the final from Milan. Marseille had been stripped of the French title that season and later on relegated to the second division not just simply because of the bribing scandal more than financial regularities. Tapie, Bernes and Eydelie had been later on imprisoned. The bribing scandal compelled Marseille to relinquish their 1992-93 Division one title and the appropriate to play in the UEFA Champions League 1993-94, the 1993 European Tremendous Cup and the 1993 Intercontinental Cup, as nicely as getting demoted to the 2nd division. The scant compensation that Tapie could derive from the entire sordid affair was that his beloved Marseille were not stripped of their Champions League. Because the scandal of 1993 Marseille have failed to win a single trophy and Tapie has gone lacking from the French football landscape

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