The Marseille administrative court on Thursday rejected OM’s requests for discounts on rents paid to the city for the provision of the Vélodrome stadium during periods of health restrictions linked to Covid.
Faced with the refusal on two occasions by the Marseille town hall to grant it a free discount on the occupancy fees for the Vélodrome stadium during the Covid-19 crisis, OM had taken the matter to the administrative court. He had requested “the cancellation of the four notices of sums to be paid that the municipality notified him” for this period, totaling 8.2 million euros, the administrative court said in a press release on Thursday.
During the 2019-2020 season, the Covid epidemic led to the early end of the L1 championship and five OM home matches were therefore canceled. The following season was played entirely behind closed doors, with the exception of the first six days during which limits of 1,000 to 5,000 spectators maximum had been established.
“The health circumstances linked to Covid-19 have no influence on the payable nature of the royalties due for the period in question, despite the resulting restrictions,” explains the court in its decision. The city “did not request from OM the payment of the variable part of the fee, based on the turnover excluding taxes generated by the activity of the company and its service providers”, he notes also. OM could therefore not “take advantage of the economic upheaval of the balance of this contract which, according to it, would have resulted from the state of health emergency”.
Contacted by AFP, OM did not react immediately. Last week, the city of Marseille also announced that the rent paid by OM for the occupation of the Vélodrome stadium would increase to eight million euros per season in fixed part, compared to 6.5 million euros currently. .
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