Solid second in the championship and still convincing on the field before going to Nice on Sunday, OM have been very agitated off the pitch in recent weeks, with numerous complaints against the refereeing and combative communication.
Sunday after the draw conceded at home against Strasbourg (1-1), all of OM came to give their opinion on Bastien Dechepy’s refereeing in front of the microphones, and it was not positive. The Marseillais regretted the absence of a whistle on an arm gesture from Strasbourg’s Guela Doué on Jonathan Rowe, which according to them was worth a penalty. This is what captain Leonardo Balerdi, president Pablo Longoria and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg came to explain on Dazn, but also coach Roberto De Zerbi at a press conference then Luis Henrique and Geronimo Rulli in the mixed zone.
“It’s always against us”
“It’s still against us,” judged the Argentinian goalkeeper. “In the locker room, we ask ourselves questions,” Hojbjerg assured. “Now it’s too much, we have to say “basta”. There comes a time when we can no longer accept everything. It’s the same thing every weekend. What are they doing at VAR? », Longoria said. “It’s a scandal, it’s too much! “, he also complained.
Obviously, this barrage did not go unnoticed and, on Tuesday, the National Ethics Council published a press release to “warn all football stakeholders, first and foremost the leaders, against any public comments of nature to discredit the arbitral function”.
>> The Ligue 1 ranking
Verbal ping-pong between the two clubs
The same day, OGC Nice also took out its pen to recall that it had also been “heavily penalized” by arbitration facts and to hope that “the serenity of Sunday’s debates will not be swept away by this storm media with regard to the refereeing during previous meetings of the Marseille club”.
The verbal ping-pong continued on Friday during De Zerbi’s press conference. “They have free time in Nice… But we don’t want anything, we don’t ask for gifts, so they can rest easy. We only ask for fair things. We think about what we have to do and when we lose, we shake hands with the winner,” assured the Italian technician.
-If it has taken on new proportions, Marseille’s annoyance does not in fact date from last week and is based on a few elements. The sequence of four questionable red cards received at the start of the season (Cornelius against Nice, Balerdi in Lyon, Harit against Paris SG and Maupay against Angers) has still not been digested. Since then, OM have also felt deprived of several penalties, as against Lille in the Coupe de France and in L1, and have misunderstood what they perceive as “a form of injustice” in the treatment of their leaders.
Rain of sanctions against leaders
Longoria has already been sanctioned for comments on refereeing, like sports coordinator Aziz Mody Mogne. Medhi Benatia, director of football, already suspended three matches after Lyon-Marseille, was excluded during the match against Lille and will therefore be sanctioned again.
The impression of tension given by OM was also accentuated by two recent press releases announcing upcoming complaints against journalists for comments made during talk shows. “We decided not to let anything go,” explained a source within the club’s management.
But while OM has been undefeated in L1 since the beginning of November, doesn’t this attention paid to whistles and their consequences risk parasitizing the work weeks of the Olympians? ” No. Not even post-matches. I answer your questions and that’s it,” De Zerbi assured Friday. “I don’t want to play the victim and I just ask that things be done fairly. We are second and we deserve it,” he said.
Senegal
