By Mark Baber
November 19 – In a throwback to the Bernard Tapie scandals of the 1990s, French police swooped in on the leading lights of Olympique Marseille (OM) on Tuesday morning, arresting club president Vincent Labrun and general manager Philip Perez at their homes in Saint-Remy de Provence and Marseille and questioning them over potential corruption and kick backs involving multi-million Euro transfer deals.
Fifteen people were taken in for questioning at the central police station in Marseille, including Jean-Claude Dassier, president of OM between 2009 and 2011 and Pape Diouf, OM’s strongman between 2004 and 2009.
The backdrop of the investigations is the transfer of Andre-Pierre Gignac in summer 2010 from Toulouse to Marseille for €20 million. According to ‘Le Point,’ prosecutors suspect “embezzlement”, “abuse of social goods” and “kickbacks in favour of different intermediaries” in the Gignan transfer, with at least one unnamed person having been under investigation for “extortion, money laundering and criminal conspiracy” for several months.
The long running investigation is being led by the organised and financial crime unit of the Central Directorate of Judicial Police and has already involved a raid on the OM training centre.
That Pape Diouf has been taken into custody supports reports that French investigators are also looking back in time, with suggestions the transfer of Souleymane Diawara from Bordeaux to OM in 2009 is also under scrutiny.
Marseille issued a statement on Tuesday saying: “Vincent Labrune and Philippe Perez, president and general manager of Olympique Marseille, met this morning to answer questions from investigators.
“The hearings today are part of an investigation which started almost two years ago, relating in particular to the conditions around former player transfers.
“Since the initiation of this investigation, the club and its leaders have continued to collaborate with justice and to contribute to the manifestation of the truth.
“The primary shareholder of the club, Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, today reiterated her determination that Olympique de Marseille will be managed in accordance with professional and ethical standards and expressed full confidence in the current management as well as the French judicial system.”
The arrests come as OM are enjoying a flying start to the season, lying in first place a point ahead of PSG; largely due to ten goals from Gignac.
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