The president of OM has broken his silence regarding the recent turmoil at the club, including Marcelino’s departure and the heated meeting with the supporters.
Pablo Longoria explained, « My goal was to send a message for us to go in the same direction, to be positive. I was prepared for criticism, but I remained optimistic about the future. I was able to speak for two minutes, then I was interrupted, and it escalated very quickly. »
« We were told, ‘Resign, all four of you (Longoria, Ribalta, Tessier, Iriondo), or it’s war.’ Limits have been crossed, » he judged. « In 2023, a leader of any club should not endure these threats. I don’t accept them. I wasn’t afraid, but I was shocked. I consider it abnormal. I didn’t have the right to speak. I wasn’t the club president in that meeting. How can you have a dialogue when someone wants to prove their superiority over you? » he exclaimed.
« Last season, insinuations that I had embezzled money through transfers reached the McCourt group, » he explained. « To protect myself, I had to ask the McCourt group to audit all our operations by an independent firm to demonstrate our transparency. I provided all my bank accounts, phones, emails, everything. It turned out that we were clean! I gave everything, even private conversations with my mother. »
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« Everything I said outside my circle of trust ended up in the press. There were insinuations about my family. All these movements are based on trying to create fear. ‘If you do this, we will slander you, we will expose a file on you.’ Do you know how many times I’ve experienced this in recent months? A lot. That’s why I decided to open an audit because I wanted to give my owner confidence, show him that there was nothing. I realized it had crossed the limit. We wondered, where is the limit? On Monday, I said it was much further than I thought. »
« It started with insinuations and it reaches threats. I can’t accept that. I can’t hear, ‘This is how it is in Marseille.’ That’s why on Tuesday, we said, ‘Under the current conditions, it is impossible to work.’ Do you understand me now? It’s not normal for a football executive to be threatened. Criticized, yes, we are paid for that. But threatened… »
