For the past week, OM has been experiencing a new period of turbulence. A plan to buy the Marseille club, in a difficult financial situation but which qualified for the next Champions League thanks to a beautiful second place in Ligue 1, has been presented in recent days in the media. Franco-Tunisian businessman Mohamed Ayachi Ajroudi, associated with the ex-president of the Toulon rugby club Mourad Boudjellal, said he was working on a buyout with Saudi funds.
Except that the current management of OM, currently owned by the American Franck McCourt, denies any desire to sell. A relative of President Jacques-Henri Eyraud laments: "When something is not for sale, the only solution is to put pressure. Anyway, this project is not serious. They had promised announcements, and nothing is not coming. " Europe 1 takes stock of this real battle around the proposed takeover of the hot club Marseille.
>> READ - Eyraud responds to Boudjellal: "Olympique de Marseille is not for sale"
The annoyance of the current management of OM
At the end of the line, the interlocutors contacted by Europe 1 are rarely offensive. "Tell your listeners, once and for all, that Olympique de Marseille is not for sale," slips a spokesperson for Frank McCourt, exasperated by what she considers an attempt to destabilize. The current American owner, she continues, "is committed to the long term. He is very attached to OM and in no case does he intend to give way".
The speech at the club headquarters is the same, where we ensure to prepare the next season in "serenity". The players are in training in Portugal, while the signatures and extensions of contracts are increasing. The extension of Dimitri Payet, with a clear drop in salary, was announced on Saturday, while OM hopes to do the same with other players like Steve Mandanda or Florian Thauvin. OM also announced Wednesday the signing for four years of Pape Gueye, a promising 21-year-old defensive midfielder at the end of the contract in Le Havre (Ligue 2), and the exercise of the option to purchase the excellent Spanish defender Alvaro Gonzalez, loaned last season by Villareal.
Many questions around the takeover project
In the sights of OM leaders is in the first place Mourad Boudjellal, accused of wanting to return the supporters. The photo of a meeting of potential buyers was therefore leaked on social media. And the pillar of the project, the Franco-Tunisian Mohamed Ajroudi, puzzled observers with a very "political" speech. Is he really interested in OM or is he playing a personal card for his business or his future in Tunisia? It is a hypothesis.
And then what is the real implication of the mysterious investors of the Gulf? Who are they ? We still evoke the boss of the sovereign fund of Saudi Arabia or the president of the Saudi football federation, who would intervene on behalf of crown prince Mohamed Ben Salmane, who no longer wants to leave the field of sports diplomacy to the only rival qatari, owner of PSG. Only the concrete and quantified presentation of this takeover project will dispel the thick fog that surrounds this funny file.