Deschamps, thunderbolt for OM!

Olympique de Marseille is in crisis. The Olympian club is however in third place in Ligue 1. But the elimination in the third preliminary round of the Champions League combined with the poor performances of Ciel et Blanc have pissed off the supporters. On Sunday, the stands of the Vélodrome shouted their anger, before admonishing the Marcelino players lined up in front of the south turn. On Monday, this time it was the leaders of OM who suffered the fury of the ultras during a long-planned meeting between representatives of supporter groups and the Olympian staff.

The supporters would have demanded the resignation of Pablo Longoria and Javier Ribalta and would not have hesitated to issue death threats against the Olympian president. The day after this sequence, a wave of panic blew among the Ciel et Blanc. Particularly affected, Marcelino announced his resignation to his players and, according to Eurosport, Pablo Longoria himself is considering calling it quits.

I will uncap his head from his shoulders

This new crisis is obviously reminiscent of the wind of revolt which led to the end of Jacques-Henri Eyraud in the winter of 2021. A few weeks earlier, ultras had violently invaded the Commanderie at the heart of an incredible coup. force of 400 angry supporters a few hours before a match at the Vélodrome against Stade Rennais.

But the threats made by representatives of supporter groups refer to another crisis experienced by OM. The departure of Didier Deschamps in the summer of 2012 was in fact motivated in particular by the threats made by Rachid Zeroual, the president of the Winners, while he was dining in a restaurant in the city. The latter had also bragged about it in front of the France 3 cameras. “I made him tremble all over, I told him that I would remove his head from his shoulders”he recounted in “Pieces à conviction”, a damning documentary on the links between organized crime and Olympique de Marseille, from 2009 to 2014.