“At no time did we make death threats or ask for Marcelino’s resignation,” the leaders of two Olympique de Marseille supporters clubs, the South Winners and the Dodger’s, assured AFP on Wednesday. “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 plunged 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 war”.
“There was no death threat, it’s true that we talked about the team, about what’s happening at the moment (…) It’s true that they are remained pale and unanswered, both on the technical point and on the training center questions 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.
“We were asking questions and we had no answers 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’s much more severe. If it is 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 in Europe. 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.
In 2021, Rachid Zeroual was sentenced to nine months in prison, five of which were suspended for his responsibility in the incidents that occurred at the club’s training center.
On January 30, 2021, some 300 supporters, heated by a succession of disappointing sporting results, gathered in front of the gates of the La Commanderie training center to notably demand the departure of the club’s president at the time, Jacques-Henri. Eyraud, since ousted and replaced by Longoria.
