October 3 – Business magnate and controversial former Olympique Marseille president Bernard Tapie has died at 78 after a long battle with stomach cancer. He led the French club to the Champions league crown in 1993, a victory later overshadowed by a match-fixing scandal in the French league.
Four years ago, Tapie was diagnosed with cancer. He enjoyed a larger-than-life career as businessman, with a major stake in the German sportswear brand Adidas, as a politician as well as a one-time president of OM.
“Dominique Tapie and his family have the immense sadness to announce the death of her husband and their father, Bernard Tapie, this Sunday,” his family said in a statement to La Provence newspaper, in which Tapie held a majority stake. “He left peacefully, surrounded by his wife, his children and grandchildren, who were at his bedside.” Tapie will be be buried in Marseille, “the city of his heart”.
Tapie was born on January 26, 1943 in the French capital Paris. He rapidly developed a reputation as a ruthless and high-profile businessman, acquiring a stake in sportswear giant Adidas. He also ventured into politics and served as urban affairs minister in the cabinet of Socialist president François Mitterrand in the early 1990s.
In 1986, he had acquired Marseille and led the club to four league titles and two French cups, but they reached even greater heights, defeating AC Milan in the 1993 Champions League final. Days after the triumph, however, Marseille were accused of fixing a league game against Valenciennes. The Marseille hierarchy wanted to win the league title before playing the Champions League final.
At Valenciennes, Jorge Burruchaga and Christophe Robert accepted the bribe, but later Jacques Glassmann blew the whistle on their foul play, with devastating consequences for both Tapie and Marseille. He was sentenced to a jail term and Marseille heavily punished.
The club was stripped of the league crown, relegated from the top flight and barred from defending its Champions League title. In total, Tapie was sentenced six times for corruption, tax evasion or fraud. He was jailed for five months in 1997.
Once out of prison, he reinvented himself as an actor and singer, but by that time he was also embroiled in a lengthy legal battle after selling his stake in Adidas. He was eventually awarded €404 million in 2008, but quickly doubts over a ruling in his favour emerged with Christine Lagarde, the finance minister in the government of Nicolas Sarkozy, a long time ally of Tapie, approving the payout.
Summing up his life in an interview with Le Monde in 2017, he said: “When you’ve won the Tour de France, the Champions League, you’ve been minister, singer, actor … what have I not done? I can’t say I haven’t been spoiled rotten by life.”
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