from glory to disgrace:soccer saga grips marseille - international herald tribune
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from glory to disgrace:soccer saga grips marseille
by ian thomsen
published: monday, july 12, 1993
marseille: the debate over the olympique marseille soccer bribery charges continued this weekend in every neighborhood bar, where each local jury must decide for itself whether it has the right to be proud.
in the bar pytheas, the bartender, silent and without opinion, poured shot after shot of, a liqueur produced in marseille, and it pooled clear in the glasses. as if making a point, he then introduced water to each glass, and the mixture became a cloudy yellow. he served the drinks all around, and the debate went on without mention of terms such as innocence or guilt.
``france is against marseille, and this makes us angry," gilbert gouirand, a 28-year-old salesman and supporter of olympique marseille, said at the bar of the st. charles train station. ``we are not angry with france. but
france is angry with us."
and that, as far as he understands it, is why he believes his om as the team is known is being persecuted on the ``ridiculous" charge of
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bribing the lowly french club valenciennes.
to understand the most recent rise and fall of marseille, one must return to the evenings of may 26 and 29.
that first night, the streets were essentially quiet until, somewhere, a referee's whistle blew. then all around there were cheers and shouts, and people by the thousands, and then by the tens of thousands, appeared around the magnificent old port. on that night, may 26, om upset ac milan to win the champions' cup, becoming the first french club to win europe's
greatest soccer trophy.
three days later, the townspeople reconvened at the port when om clinched its fifth consecutive french league championship. they were chanting and singing and diving into the sea. were there so many soccer fans in marseille? not likely. when morning came, they were still celebrating.
``even the people who don't like football were here," said gilles lievaux, a waiter at le collins bar on the quai of the old port. ``this is why people are really, really sad now. the people in france don't think well of the people of marseille. because the people here, they like the sun, they like to sing, to drink the pastis it is a way of life that is different from the rest of france."
it should be remembered that marseille's european victory was celebrated all night throughout france. in the ensuing six weeks, however, a line of accusations has been drawn around marseille almost inevitably, to hear some locals talk.
three players from valenciennes, a club that was demoted to the second division after last season, claimed that the marseille midfielder jean-jacques eydelie offered them 250,000 francs ($50,000) to ``take the foot off of the gas"
in a may 20 match against om.
the wife of the valenciennes player christophe robert alleges that she picked up the money from mr. eydelie. police found an envlope containing that amount in theyard of her parents' house. the french daily le monde reported that mr. eydelie's wife, christine, told the police on friday that marseille's general manager, jean-pierre bern¡es, had pressured her husband to bribe his friends on the valenciennes team.
``when a club is the greatest in france, it doesn't need to pay another club that is the worst," mr. gouirand said. ``it is a very crazy story; it is a very ridiculous story. i think it's a political story.'
an old story, he might have said. a sign near the old port says of the greeks, ``they founded marseilles, from which civilization reached the west." over the course of 25 centuries, civilization passed through marseille and continued 800 kilometers north, where it became set in stone in paris. in approach and organization, marseille more closely resembles barcelona. it
shares little in common with the stately facade of the french capital.
marseille has always belonged to whoever happened to be in town. sailors have always stayed here, while tourists have been more proud to visit cannes or antibes or monaco farther east along the riviera. marseille is like the french engine room on the mediterranean. drug traffic has long passed through the city, site of the ``french connection." the far-right policies of jean-marie le pen found strength here, against the steady influx of foreigners.
at night the professional women appear brazenly under the streetlights, arrayed like all the sidewalk statues of paris come to life. it was in this setting that bernard tapie, an entrepeneur and politician, rescued olympique marseille from the second division seven years ago.
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