Five years after the first rumors of the Affairs of Olympique de Marseille by Saudi funds, the file is experiencing an unexpected as it is spectacular. While the project seemed definitively buried, new elements suggest that the Saudi ambitions on the Marseille club would always be relevant. Better still: the process would even be active in the shadows, according to an initiate who says he has collected exclusive information on the subject.
An old sea serpent that resurfaces
It was Thibaud Vézirian, a journalist who passed by the team, who relaunched speculations this Friday during a live. The one who has established himself in recent years as the main voice of this controversial project claims to have recently exchanged with Alwaleed Aldebasi, a Saudi journalist well introduced to the PIF, the sovereign fund who has already bought Newcastle. “It is very confident on the arrival of the PIF in Marseille”, Confides Vézirian, emphasizing the desired parallel between OM and Newcastle: a popular club, a passionate city, an ideal media showcase.
According to Vézirian, Aldebasi could not give a date or detail the financial arrangement, but his enthusiasm would be revealing: “He does not know when it will fall, but he is happy with what is happening,” he said. The objective would be to replicate the Newcastleian model to Marseille, with an equivalent popular fervor and a strong investment strategy. However, no certainty emanates from this interview. And several crucial points (transfer window, organization chart, future of Longoria, etc.) remain vague.
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If these statements revive the flame of Marseille supporters, they must also be taken with care. Thibaud Vézirian widely discredited himself from part of the Olympian public after several announcements never materialized. Blacklisted by some media, mocked on social networks, he probably plays his all-while here. If he was right, he would find immense credibility. If he is wrong again, it would be without appeal.
Especially since nothing allows, to date, to think that the owner Frank McCourt wants to give in the club. Officially, the American has further reaffirmed its long -term commitments. It aims to develop the female section, strengthen the sports project around Longoria, Benatia and Zerbi, and to perpetuate the qualification in the Champions League. So many signals that go against an imminent departure. The passage in front of the DNCG at the end of June will perhaps be one of the rare moments of truth to come in this file decidedly as passionate as they are nebulous.
