"At no time have we made death threats or asked for Marcelino's resignation," the leaders of two OM supporters' clubs, the South Winners and the Dodger's, told AFP on Wednesday, while the Marseille club is plunged into chaos. "We want to meet the main shareholder who is Frank McCourt: he must come as soon as possible to listen to what we have to say to him," now claims Rachid Zeroual, head of the South Winners (7200 subscribers).
After a stormy meeting on Monday between the groups of supporters and the management, which gave rise to a statement for the least ambiguous of OM, the club plunged Wednesday a little more into the crisis with the announcement of the departure of the Spanish coach Marcelino, arrived this summer. An announcement that falls very badly, on the eve of the entry into the competition of OM in the Europa League in Amsterdam. In its statement, OM accuses representatives of supporters' associations without naming them of "individual attacks" and the "threat of a 'war'".
"They remained pale and unanswered"
"There was no death threat, it's true that we talked about the team, what is happening at the moment (...) It is true that they remained pale and unanswered, as much on the technical point as on the questions of the training center raised by Rachid, "assures AFP Christian Castaldo, Dodgers, which represents 3200 subscribers.
" READ ALSO Incredible departures and less than 50 games on average: the incredible waltz of coaches at OM
Rachid Zeroual says he alone "raised certain problems" that parents reported to him about the training center and he alone evoked the resignation but without asking for it from President Pablo Longoria and his three main collaborators.
"Clear from the club, as they say in the Marseillaise"
"We were asking questions and we didn't have an answer so it's true that I told them: 'If it's true and you don't give us an answer, I ask for your resignation, because it's much more serious. 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 of the 2nd city of France. "But at no time did I make death threats to anyone, neither me nor anyone," he insists, next to the South Winners' lawyer.
Pablo Longoria was appointed president shortly after the attack on the Commandery in January 2021 by supporters, furious at the management of the then president, Jacques-Henri Eyraud. Several fans had been sentenced to prison, firm or suspended, for these incidents including Rachid Zeroual who appealed his sentence at first instance to nine months in prison, five of which suspended, according to the lawyer of the South Winners.
