According to reports in local papers, the club’s president know that selling the franchise to a wealthy owner would not be an easy task as the club and the city itself has a few problems that need to be solved first
If Paris Saint-Germain have been able to attract a wealthy investor from the Middle East, rivals http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/France-c2899, Marseille is
far from being the richest in the country.
At a time when Paris Saint-Germain saw the Qataris literally dump millions of Euros on the club, constant rumours of the sale of PSG have been heard. From the return of Bernard Tapei to an unknown yet rich investor from Middle East, Olympique de Marseille
has always been linked with a possible sale in the future.
However, according to L’Equipe, selling OM is not going to be an easy task for various reasons. According to the sports daily, the first reason is that as of now, football is going through a major crisis and although most of the European clubs are on sale,
investors prefer to wait before taking a gamble.
“Today, the club is not on the market. Football is going through a major crisis. A bubble is exploding. Almost all the clubs in Europe are for sale, but the guys who want to buy them, will wait for more than three years,” says Vincent Labrune, the president
of Marseille.
Furthermore, Marseille is not ready to change hands for a few reasons with the first being the ongoing construction of Stade Velodrome. The new enclosure would be open for public in 2014 – a waiting time that would be detrimental to the revenue generated
from ticket sales.
According to the club’s director of sales and marketing operations Corinne Gensollen, the club used to earn 25 million euros per year through ticket sales but this season, the revenue would be of only 11 million euros.
So, it is easy to understand why an investor would not want to buy the club before the end of this project.
Furthermore, another factor is the club’s ticketing system. Only in France, a club’s fans manage the sale of the 26000 capacity Stade Velodrome which is something unique. As a result, OM can apply tariffs according to their liking.
Another important factor is the security issues in Marseille. In recent years, the likes of Niang, Lucho Gonzalez, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hilton-c16219, Andre-Pierre Gignac and Ayew brothers’ homes have been assaulted. There is a climate of insecurity in the city. Plus, the economic
environment is not good either with Marseille having the highest rate of unemployment in the country which means that its club will have to wait for a long time before being wooed by a wealthy owner.
Tags: