1994: Ghislain Gingras, the false North American businessman
In 1994, nothing was going well at the Olympique de Marseille. While the team won the C1 the previous year, the OM-VA affair knocked the club out. Marseille is relegated to D2 and the DNCG announces a recruitment ban. A man then presents himself as the potential savior capable of settling debts and taking over the club on the verge of collapse: Ghislain Gingras. This Canadian presents himself as a very wealthy businessman who made his fortune in mining. But the one who claims to have had "love at first sight" for the club after announcing that he was going to inject 90 million francs into the coffers is in reality only a joker. The man has never worked in the mining sector, let alone made a fortune in the industry and does not own a business in Montreal either as he claimed. Known by the justice of his country for several scams, Ghislain Gingras and his offer disappear from the radar as quickly as they appeared on the Canebière. The dream flies away for the supporters.
2007: Jack Kachkar, the “actor” acclaimed by the Stade Vélodrome
In 2006, Robert Louis-Dreyfus, owner of OM decided to separate from the club after having injected nearly a billion francs into it in a decade. An opportunity presents itself with Jack Kachkar. This Canadian born in Damascus presents himself as a businessman living in Miami, at the head of several companies in the pharmaceutical and mining industry. The case is looking pretty good. Pape Diouf, then right-hand man of Robert-Louis Dreyfus, rolls out the red carpet for this buyer with pockets visibly full of dollars. Supported by Jean-Pierre Foucault, president of the OM association, Kachkar first announced that he wanted to bail out the club's coffers with 115 million euros. Figures that make supporters dizzy.
He then landed in Marseille, met the players at the training center and even witnessed a victory for the team in the Coupe de France against Lyon at the Stade Vélodrome. The public cheered him on the lawn when he brandished a Marseille scarf in the direction of the stands. However, the dream quickly turns into a nightmare. The first bank payments are long overdue. In March 2007, Louis-Dreyfus loses patience and realizes that it is in reality a deception. The negotiations are then broken off. Kachkar is then prosecuted by "RLD" for "forgery, use of forgery and fraud". He will be sentenced to ten months in prison in 2011 by the Paris Criminal Court.
2020: Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi and the mysterious Mediterranean project
The American billionaire Frank McCourt has owned OM since 2016. On June 26, a takeover offer fell, led by the former president of the Toulon rugby club Mourad Boudjellal, associated with a French businessman. Tunisian, Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi. “It's a Mediterranean project. There are Saudi, Emirati and Israeli companies ”, then confided to Figaro the engineer who commissioned a French investment bank, the Wingate establishment, to finance the operation estimated at several hundreds of millions of dollars. 'euros. But the management of the OM assures several times that McCourt is not salesman. Ulcerated by the communication strategy of very insistent potential buyers, the Marseille club even filed a complaint on July 22 against Mourad Boudjellal and Mohamed Ayachi Aroudji, accused of wanting to lead a destabilization campaign against OM.
This does not in any way curb the intentions of the Ajourdi clan which poses an ultimatum on July 29: McCourt has ten days to accept the offer of the group of investors who cut down a new card, that of Bernard Tapie. The former president of OM could, according to them, integrate the future future organizational chart of the club. “The answer is clear, I am neither concerned, nor interested, nor even in a position to be in anything involved in current or future projects relating to OM. I hope that all this din on this subject will stop, ”slice, annoyed, the former boss of OM in our columns. Since then, the takeover offer has dragged on and seems to have stalled. Bored, Mourad Boudjellal ends up turning away. This Friday, the former boss of RC Toulon attacks the communication plan of the Ajroudi clan, calling it "grotesque", "indecent" and "shameful". As of August 14, OM seems more than ever in the hands of Frank McCourt. But the pole of investors has still not, officially in any case, thrown in the towel.
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- Boudjellal settles accounts with the Ajroudi clan and drops the OM buyout project