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MARSEILLE

Marseille boss Bielsa quits after season opener

Marcelo Bielsa stunned French football on Saturday when he quit as coach of Marseille just minutes after his team had lost their season opener 1-0 at home to Caen.

Published: 9 August 2015 11:42 CEST
Marseille boss Bielsa quits after season opener
The announcement came as a shock. Photo: Bertrand Langlois/ AFP

“I have resigned from my post as manager of Marseille,” the Argentine announced at the end of his post-match news conference.

Bielsa, 60, has been linked to the Mexico national team manager's role in recent weeks, and Marseille looked every inch a side affected by the off-field uncertainty surrounding his future.

Immediately after their lacklustre defeat, Bielsa, who had only been in charge at the Stade Velodrome since May 2014, announced his resignation.

“I have finished my work here, I will return to my country,” said Bielsa,who guided the former European champions to fourth place in Ligue 1 last season.

“I thank the fans for always being behind me during games and on a dailybasis.

“I am sad and frustrated. I cannot accept the situation of instability atthe club,” added Bielsa, who accused the club of last-minute changes to the details of a contract he was ready to sign which would have kept him at Marseille until 2017.

To add spice to the drama, Bielsa left it to his interpreter to read outthe key phrase of his letter of resignation which was sent to Marseille president Vincent Labrune.

“We had reached an agreement on a contract extension for 2016-2017, which was missing just a signature,” he wrote in his letter.

Bielsa said he had met Wednesday with the club's chief executive Philippe Perez and Igor Levin, the lawyer of Marseille owner Margarita Louis Dreyfus.

”They wanted to change the contract,” the Argentine wrote. “I took this final decision as working together requires a minimum of trust which we do not have.”

‘Massive blow’

Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda said Bielsa's resignation was a huge shock.

“It's a massive, heavy blow,” said Mandanda, who told reporters that one of Bielsa's assistants, Franck Passi would take temporary charge.

“At Friday's press conference, everything was fine, it was all positive.

“He was an important part of the club, for the team. We are disappointed. We don't know the ins and outs of it, we don't know what has happened. But we respect his decision.”

Marseille got off to a flying start last season — winning eight of their opening 10 matches — before fading to fourth, 14 points adrift of champions PSG.

The only goal of Saturday's game arrived in the 27th minute and in spectacular fashion as Andy Delort fired a right-footed piledriver beyond Mandanda.

WEATHER

IN PICTURES: How floods and a bin strike left Marseille submerged in waste

Torrential rain hit the city of Marseille in the south of France on Sunday and Monday, just days after local waste collectors ended a week-long strike, leading to fears of "catastrophic" waste making its way to the ocean.

Published: 5 October 2021 13:00 CEST
IN PICTURES: How floods and a bin strike left Marseille submerged in waste
A man stands on a beach covered with cans following heavy rains and a strike of waste collectors in Marseille on October 5th. Photo: Nicolas TUCAT / AFP.

Marseille is located in the Bouches-du-Rhône département, which Météo France placed on red alert for heavy rain and flooding on Monday. Schools in the area shut and people were warned not to leave their homes as two months’ worth of rain fell in a single day in the Mediterranean city, after heavy rains had already caused flooding on Sunday night.

The situation was compounded by the fact that uncollected garbage was blocking storm drains in certain parts of the city – drains which would normally be cleared ahead of heavy rain – and making it more difficult for emergency services to intervene.

The city’s waste collectors had begun clearing the streets on Saturday after an agreement between unions and local authorities put an end to an eight-day strike over an increase to working hours.

But rain over the weekend made the monumental job even more difficult, and the result was that “rivers of rubbish” flowed through the city’s streets on Monday.

“Rubbish is everywhere. It’s a catastrophe,” biologist Isabelle Poitou, director of the MerTerre association, told AFP. “We’re expecting a strong mistral wind which will push the rubbish, which is currently making its way towards the sea, onto the beaches.”

“It’s vital to come and clear the rubbish from the beaches on Tuesday or Wednesday,” she added. “We need to act before the rubbish gets scattered in the sea at the first gust of wind.”

A woman collects waste on a beach after heavy rains and following a strike of waste collectors in Marseille.

A woman collects waste on a beach after heavy rains and following a strike of waste collectors in Marseille. Photo: Christophe SIMON / AFP.

The video below tweeted by BFMTV journalist Cédric Faiche shows the state of a beach in Marseille early on Tuesday morning. “It’s been cleaned several times but cans and different types of plastic continue to arrive…” Faiche wrote.

However, Faiche told BFM there are similar scenes every time there is heavy rain in Marseille, even if the strike has made the situation even worse.

Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin shared a video of the “sad scene” captured in Marseille on Sunday night. “Discussions between trade unions and the city must not make us forget what really matters: we are all responsible for our seas and our oceans!” she said.

“It’s unacceptable,” Christine Juste, deputy mayor in charge of the environment in Marseille told BFM on Tuesday, criticising the “lack of reactivity” in collecting leftover rubbish following the end of the strike on Friday.

“Why wait so long? In the 6th arrondissement, there has been no collection since the announcement that the strike was over,” she said.

IN PICTURES: See how the deluge has left parts of France’s Mediterranean coast submerged

The Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis intercommunal structure, rather than city hall, is in charge of rubbish collection in Marseille.

On Monday morning, the Metropolis dispatched 650 workers to clear away as much waste as possible ahead of the heaviest rainfall which was forecast for the afternoon.

On Monday evening, Marseille’s Mayor Benoît Payan told franceinfo that 3,000 tonnes of garbage were still yet to be collected in the city. “I asked the Prime Minister this evening to class the zone as a natural disaster,” he added.

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