Stéphane Richard, who will officially take office on 1er next July, and Grégory Lorenzi, whose arrival must be confirmed in the coming hours, have a huge project ahead of them. The new president of Olympique de Marseille and its sporting director inherit a club in the middle of a crisis.
And if the end of the season for Habib Beye’s men on the Ligue 1 pitches is the best illustration of this, the situation is just as worrying behind the scenes. This is evidenced by the latest revelations from L’Equipe on the Marseille mole. For several days, rumors on social networks have pointed to Pacho Abardonado as having been trapped by certain leaders.
The assistant coach is convinced: this operation would be the work of people close to Medhi Benatia and in particular Bob Tahri, his right-hand man. He would not have hesitated to take him to task in the minutes following the end of the last match of the season, against Stade Rennais (3-1). “Why do you say everywhere that I’m the mole? »he would have told him before the tone rose. To the point that the two men grab each other and have to be separated.
Heavy accusations against Bob Tahri
Pancho Abardonado is not the first to be accused of being the mole. And for a player still at the club, the Benatia clan would indeed have nothing to do with it. “After the first training course at Mallemort (in November 2024) and the narrowly avoided mutiny (in March 2025), coach De Zerbi understood that Benatia and his men were at the origin of numerous leaks. The information always came out on the same sites or Twitter accounts that Medhi and those close to him keep on a leash. We understood it well too: when it was necessary to get rid of one of us, he was tarnished on these same accounts, he said. A bit like in the Jean-Pierre Papin affair, despite being a club legend, thrown away for the benefit of Ali Zarrak. Relations became very complicated between the two, and De Zerbi even tried to push aside certain people close to Benatia during the “ritiri” in Rome. »
And the former Nice player is not the only one to hold a grudge against Bob Tahri. A collective of OM employees in fact sent an email to around fifty managers, including the board, to complain about the former steeplechase specialist. “Dear colleagues, president, members of the management board. We are taking the liberty of sending you this email on behalf of a collective of employees of Olympique de Marseille, in order to denounce certain things which have gone silent for too long, notably concerning a person who crystallizes a lot of problems and tension at the club: Mr. Bob Tahri…”they wrote to begin with.
“The current atmosphere (mole hunt, paranoia at all levels) forces us to remain anonymous for fear of our jobs. Even our CSE risks being powerless as this person exceeds in the art of manipulation and lies and as our management closes its eyes and does not realize the error it is making by maintaining confidence in this person, they continue. I would like to tell you that there are, in total, around twenty of us who have come together, members of the administrative building and also of the sports sector, from various professions, with or without responsibilities, including players. But many people don’t dare speak out for fear of being fired or downgraded at the club. »
The situation is such that HR “has taken up the matter” which should give rise to an internal investigation.
