By Le Figaro with AFP
Published yesterday at 9:14 p.m., Updated yesterday at 10:40 p.m.
Javier Ribalta (left) with President Pablo Longoria. Frédéric Chambert / Frederic Chambert / Panoramic
Marseille formalized the Spaniard’s departure this Wednesday, a month after the meeting between managers and supporters which caused a crisis within the club.
After its coach Marcelino, its football director: Olympique de Marseille, still in crisis, announced Wednesday evening the departure of the Spaniard Javier Ribalta.
This departure of President Pablo Longoria’s right-hand man is the consequence of the stormy meeting in mid-September between the club’s management and groups of Marseille supporters unhappy with OM’s sluggish start to the season. During this meeting, supporters demanded the resignation of several members of the club’s board of directors, including Ribalta.
The name of the successor under consideration
«Following constructive discussions that have occurred recently within the club, and in close coordination with the supervisory board and (American owner) Frank McCourt, who reaffirmed his commitment, his confidence, and his attachment to the club, the Olympique de Marseille announces a change in its internal organization and in particular its management board», Explained the club in a press release.
«Chaired by Pablo Longoria and composed to date of four members, the board will continue its mission of in-depth transformation of the club without the contribution of Javier Ribalta, whom Olympique de Marseille would particularly like to thank for his involvement and professionalism.», Continues the press release.
The club is still giving itself time before stopping “his choice on the appropriate profile» to replace Ribalta, adds this text.
Former sports director of Zenit Saint Petersburg then technical director at Parma in Italy, Ribalta arrived in Marseille in the summer of 2022 to “supervise the entire sporting policy of the club“. He was especially close to Longoria, with whom he had worked at Juventus Turin, from 2015 to 2017.
In the off-season, after the departure of Igor Tudor, both decided to fundamentally change the squad of the club, which had reached an honorable third place last year in Ligue 1.
“A club that is regressing”
However, even if on paper OM has no reason to be ashamed of its team, automatisms are still difficult to create between the players, some of whom show a cruel lack of physical condition. After eight days Marseille only occupies 6th place, five points behind leader Monaco.
In an interview with the daily L’Equipe on Wednesday, the former OM coach, the Spaniard Marcelino, replaced by the Italian Gennaro Gattuso, returned for the first time to the conditions of his departure, believing that Marseille was “a club which, instead of evolving, regresses».
«This is a way of proceeding which is very far from what the reality must be, in 2023, in a civilized country», Declared the Spanish technician about the meeting between supporters and managers which pushed him to resign on September 20, after only five days of the championship.
