Marseille MELTDOWN: President slams 'SH*T league' as De Zerbi QUITS France

Marseille MELTDOWN: President slams 'SH*T league' as De Zerbi QUITS France

Tom Weber Updated: 23 Feb 2025 15:33 GMT

4 min read

© IMAGO

Olympique Marseille have gone into complete meltdown after being on the receiving end of what they deem 'corrupt' refereeing.

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The Ligue 1 giants have been a veritable crisis club for some time but things finally appeared to stabilise under Roberto de Zerbi when the season kicked off.

However, after a promising start, everything swiftly took a turn for the worse and Marseille relatively quickly stopped being a credible title challenger for perennial champions PSG.

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Marseille's season has been characterised by repeated outbursts from club bosses over perceived feelings of being wronged. Head coach Roberto de Zerbi threatened to resign just a few months into his reign after losing 3-1 to Auxerre in November.

In January, director of football Mehdi Benatia received his second suspension of the season as he was hit with a hefty three-month ban for allegedly 'threatening' fourth official Jeremy Stinat in a match against Lille.

The severity of the punishment has led to increased paranoia within the club and things came full circle on Saturday when Stinat officiated Marseille's 3-0 loss to, you guessed it, Auxerre.

© IMAGO - Roberto de Zerbi

Marseille's epic meltdown

Marseille were trailing 1-0 when defender Derek Cornelius was sent off in the 63rd minute by Stinat, which dashed any hopes of a comeback. A late brace from Auxerre defender and captain Jubal compounded Marseille's misery.

After the match, both president Pablo Longoria and De Zerbi completely lost their heads. La Provence reports that the former slammed Ligue 1 as a 'sh*tty championship,' accused French referees of 'corruption' and threatened to quit for the European Super League, officially called 'The Unify League.'

“This is corruption," Longoria is quoted as having shouted. "I’ve never seen anything like it. You can write it down: Pablo Longoria says it’s corruption. Everything has been organised since the yellow card [suspension] given to [Leonardo] Balerdi.

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"It’s planned, it’s rigged. There’s a penalty on [Quentin] Merlin, four European referees have told me so by message, and the most scandalous thing is the red card to Cornelius. This is a sh*tty championship. If the Super League comes to see us, we’ll go right away.”

De Zerbi, meanwhile, announced that he will quit French football forever once his time at Marseille comes to an end. “I’m Italian and after OM I’m not going to coach in France again," he told Telefoot.

"There’s a problem in the French championship. If French people are happy with this level of decision-making, then good for them. But today it was scandalous. The referee was not in a position to referee this match because of all the controversy surrounding him.”

The president of the French FA, Phillipe Diallo, has since responded to Longoria's corruption claims, slamming the Spaniard for his "serious, inadmissible and unacceptable comments. How can we expect referees to be respected at amateur level when such behaviour occurs at the highest level of French football?”

"The federation supports all its referees, both professional and amateur, and of course Mr Stinat," Diallo continued. "Before the match, the tyres of his two vehicles were punctured. His wife noticed it when she was about to take the motorway. We need to call for reason. Such remarks are unacceptable.”

Ligue 1 referee Jerome Brisard has told DAZN that a defamation complaint against Longoria will be filed as early as Monday. “The word corruption has been used. A red line has been crossed, it is unacceptable.

"All Ligue 1 central referees will file a complaint for defamation. It should not be forgotten that professional or amateur referees only aspire to work in a safe environment.“

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