The president of OM Pablo Longoria would have suffered “pressure” recently according to the confessions of Rachid Zeroual.
What is happening in Marseille? On September 18, OM caught fire after an eventful meeting between management and supporters’ associations. An episode which precipitated the departures of coach Marcelino and football director Javier Ribalta. Pointed out for having mishandled President Longoria and his deputies, the boss of the South Winners, Rachid Zeroual, gives his version of the facts this Monday evening on RMC.
“ Never in my life has there been a death threat. I wouldn’t be in front of you if I had threatened to kill him. With all these accusations, I feel more like someone is trying to discredit me, muzzle me and isolate me. I just tried to tell the truth, I have my own way of seeing and feeling thingsproclaims the person concerned. I live for my club from morning to night and I will fight all my life for OM, for my city and for the subscribers. When things are wrong, we say so. We hate injustice and having it done to us in reverse. »
A month and a half later, the tension subsided. Rachid Zeroual himself renewed the dialogue with Pablo Longoria. “ He explained his point of view to me, that he felt uncomfortable when the tone rose to that point in a meeting. I repeated to him that we were in Marseille, and that the supporters were like that, capable of raising their voicesconfides the manager of the Winners. During our meeting, I especially asked him to deny that I had threatened to kill him. When you bring parents to a meeting and you defend a noble cause, at no time would anyone allow themselves to make death threats. »
OM-OL, “extremists” denounced
However, Pablo Longoria has indeed filed a complaint with the Marseille prosecutor’s office. “ I asked him about his complaintconfirms Rachid Zeroual. He confirmed to me that he had filed a complaint, but not against us, only because he is under pressure from elsewhere. Above all, I insisted that he reestablish the truth and make it clear that there were no death threats from us. The latest news was that he wanted to do it but with the incidents against Lyon it wasn’t possible… »
Incidents that this essential figure in the stands of the Vélodrome firmly condemns. “ There is an ongoing investigation and it makes sense. Fortunately, this type of event rarely happens, because we try to make believe that in Marseille, we welcome opposing clubs like this all the time. I can’t stand what happened against Lyon. Attacking a bus of players and seeing the state the coach was in, I’ve never seen that in my life. (…) We are talking about independents, I am going to say that they are extremists. These are fools, people who take over our stands, who are camouflaged, who may or may not belong to a group. »
