The elimination of Olympique de Marseille from the preliminary phase of the Champions League has serious financial consequences.
Olympique de Marseille was left with a terrible disappointment on Tuesday. Opposed to Panathinaikos, the Marseille club has already had to say goodbye to the Champions League. A week after their defeat (1-0) in Athens in the first leg, OM were eliminated on penalties in the third qualifying preliminary round. While they seemed to have the game in hand and led 2-0 at the break, Marcelino’s men first saw the Greeks snatch extra time at the end of added time and then Matteo Guendouzi miss his attempt and condemn the OM in the Europa League.
The Marseille camp took the hit at the end of the meeting. “It’s a disappointment, commented Pablo Longoria at the microphone of RMC Sport. We share the frustration of our supporters… It reminds us how cruel football is, it’s a disappointment today because it was one of the first goals of the season. We had that hope. Tonight we have nothing to reproach the attitude, the behavior of our players or the game produced in general. But it’s hard. It’s hard. »
And the Marseille president could have it all the worse as OM also lost big financially. Because by reaching this group stage, OM could hope for a nice jackpot of at least fifteen million euros. The French teams share a total of 60 million euros for qualifying for the Champions League, with around 45% for the champion, 35% for the second and 20% for the third, OM therefore, in Ligue 1. A sum to which are added the sums distributed according to the results as well as the marketing rights.
“We are always rooted in a project. It doesn’t change anything about the project.” nevertheless blew Pablo Longoria, adding: “We had projected a season in all the different scenarios. But there is the economic difference, and there is also the difference in prestige between the two competitions. For us, for our supporters, for our sponsors… It changes the season a bit but the project remains the same. We had anticipated this scenario with the responsibilities we must have. »
“It’s not going to change our ideas about what we wanted to do by the end of the transfer window. What it changes is the attraction that we can have by playing in the Champions League to recruit certain players, he continued. We have no financial need to sell players. As I said, we had planned for all the different scenarios. »
