Michel sacked as Marseille manager: ‘It had been coming for a while’

Franck Passi meets the media after being appointed the new manager of Marseille after the sacking of Michel. Bertrand Langlois / AFP

Marseille have sacked coach Michel as they battle relegation from Ligue 1 and other turmoil within the club.

Following constant speculation surrounding the future of the Spaniard, Marseille said they had decided to dismiss Michel and cited his conduct, “in particular over the last three weeks.”

“Olympique de Marseille have suspended him with immediate effect,” a club statement said.

The former European champions, who are up for sale, said that Michel would be replaced until the end of the season by his assistant Franck Passi.

He will be helped by club legend Basile Boli, who has been working as an ambassador for the club and has now been named “sporting coordinator”.

Boli scored the winning goal for Marseille against AC Milan in the 1993 Uefa Champions League final, which remains the only triumph for a French club in Europe’s elite competition.

Passi and Boli’s first job will be to lead a demoralised side into Wednesday’s French Cup semi-final away to second-tier Sochaux.

“The situation is perilous, we need to be united,” Passi, who previously stood in as caretaker in August following former coach Marcelo Bielsa’s resignation, said at a press conference.

“We are going on a commando mission to win tomorrow (Wednesday), get to the final and save the club from relegation.”

Passi said that Michel’s departure “had been coming for a while. I am not going to say I was surprised.”

Michel, who starred as a player for Real Madrid and Spain, was appointed in August with Marseille in crisis following Bielsa’s resignation after a 1-0 defeat to Caen on the opening night of the season.

However, the 53-year-old has been unable to transform the club’s fortunes, and Sunday’s abject 2-1 defeat at Monaco left them still just six points above the relegation zone in Ligue 1 with four games left.

They have gone 10 league games without a win and are on a club record run of 14 matches without a victory at their Stade Velodrome home since September.

A 0-0 draw at home to Bordeaux on April 10 was played out to fan protests at the team’s struggles that featured banners depicting goats and the Benny Hill theme tune being played from the stands.

Supporters also continued their theme of fury at the perceived apathy of owner Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, with one banner at the Velodrome reading: “Margarita rich incompetent heiress get lost!”

Louis-Dreyfus, who inherited the club after the death of her husband Robert in 2009, announced last week that she would be listening to offers to buy out her controlling stake in the 1993 Champions League winners.

There is also doubt about the future of president Vincent Labrune, with sports daily L'Equipe and other French media claiming on Tuesday that he could be replaced by local businessman Xavier Giocanti.

Giocanti is the partner of Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund.

However, Louis-Dreyfus denied the reports in a statement on the club’s website.

“I categorically refute the reports in L’Equipe about the replacement of the current president,” she said, adding that they were “without foundation”.

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