Ligue 1: Pablo Longoria and the management of OM step back

OM president Pablo Longoria, as well as his closest collaborators within the club's management, decided on Tuesday to step back, the day after a stormy meeting with representatives of supporter groups, we learned. AFP from a source with knowledge of the matter. “The OM Directory cannot accept personal threats. Its members cannot tolerate individual attacks and any form of unfounded public defamation. A relationship based on intimidation cannot guarantee the minimum acceptable conditions so that the club's Executive Board can continue to invest in the transformation of OM,” the club wrote in a press release.

According to the source interviewed by AFP, Pablo Longoria, football director Javier Ribalta, general director Pedro Iriondo and financial director Stéphane Tessier therefore chose to “step aside” to “think” about their future within OM. They will not travel to Amsterdam, where the Marseille club must face Ajax on Thursday for the first day of the Europa League, but “no decision has been made” as to whether or not they will continue in their functions. Furthermore, no details were given about Marcelino, the club's coach, also Spanish and close friend of Longoria. On Tuesday morning, the daily L'Equipe wrote that Marcelino had informed his players of his desire to leave the club.

The Marseille club, which is experiencing a difficult start to the season on a sporting level, entered into crisis after a meeting between management and representatives of supporter groups which was held on Monday evening at the Commanderie, the training center of the club. Planned for a long time, this meeting took place in an atmosphere described to AFP by one of the participants as “very tense”.

“Following a meeting held on Monday September 18, 2023 at the Robert Louis-Dreyfus Training Center, representatives of the supporters' associations expressed their wish to see the current OM Directory resign. The threat of war (sic) against them has been issued, as long as they do not resign,” specifies OM in its press release.