Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Dan Mullan / GETTY IMAGES EUROPE / Getty Images via AFP 23:06 p.m., May 25, 2023

Bernard Tapie honored in Marseille. The former emblematic president of OM will have his name near the Velodrome stadium. The city's mayor Benoît Payan announced that he would rename an esplanade leading to the stadium after the former businessman who is now deceased.

The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, announced Thursday in an interview with the daily La Provence that one of the esplanades leading to the Stade Vélodrome would now bear the name of Bernard Tapie, former businessman, politician and president of OM, who died in 2021. "The large esplanade that leads to the Velodrome stadium, on the Jean-Bouin side (boulevard Michelet) will be named after Bernard Tapie. We mark in marble his name, his passage, his contribution to the history of this club, "explained the mayor various left of the city.

Questioned by AFP, the municipality said that the inauguration of this esplanade Bernard Tapie would take place "later". The announcement comes on the eve of the 30th anniversary of OM's victory in the Champions League on May 26, 1993. Bernard Tapie was then the owner and president of OM, and this feat has remained to this day unique in the history of French football. A few months later, however, OM was demoted to the second division as a result of the VA-OM affair, the corruption scandal that precipitated the fall of Tapie, then imprisoned.

>> READ ALSO – "We did it Baz!": Basile Boli reveals the first words of Raymond Goethals after the victory of OM in 1993

"Our duty"

In the interview with La Provence, Benoît Payan explains about this decision that it was "our duty and our responsibility to do so". "This is not about the politician or businessman, who was complex and out of the ordinary. I retain the image of the sports leader," he said. "The fans nicknamed him 'the Boss' because he carried OM to the top of Europe. Today is in our history," he added.

Marseille will celebrate Friday the 30th anniversary of its victory in C1 with a celebration at the City Hall and a rebroadcast of the 1993 final on a giant screen. At 23:00, supporters also planned a massive ignition of smoke on more than 20 kilometers along the Marseille coast. The kick-off of this "cracking" will take place at Notre-Dame de la Garde.