Olympique de Marseille

For the women's team, see Olympique de Marseille (women).

Marseille
Olympique Marseille logo
Full nameOlympique de Marseille
Nickname(s)Les Phocéens (The Phocaeans)[1]
Les Olympiens (The Olympians)
Les Minots (The Boys from Marseille)[2]
Short nameOM, Marseille
Founded31 August 1899; 125 years ago (1899-08-31)
GroundStade Vélodrome
Capacity67,394[3]
OwnersFrank McCourt (95%)
Margarita Louis-Dreyfus (5%)[4]
PresidentPablo Longoria
ManagerRoberto De Zerbi
LeagueLigue 1
2023–24Ligue 1, 8th of 18
Websiteom.fr
Current season
Active departments of
Olympique de Marseille

Football
(men's)
Football
(women's)

Olympique de Marseille (French: [ɔlɛ̃pik də maʁsɛj], locally [olɛ̃ˈpikə də maχˈsɛjə]; Occitan: Olimpic de Marselha, pronounced [ulimˈpi de maʀˈsejɔ]), also known simply as Marseille or by the abbreviation OM (IPA: [o.ɛm], locally [oˈɛmə]), is a French professional football club based in Marseille that competes in Ligue 1, the top flight of French football. Founded in 1899, the club has won nine league titles, ten Coupe de France titles, three Coupe de la Ligue titles, three Trophée des Champions titles, a national record of one UEFA Champions League and a joint national record of one UEFA Intertoto Cup.[5] Additionally, Marseille has played in three UEFA Europa League finals.[6] In 1993, coach Raymond Goethals led the team to become the first and only French club to win the UEFA Champions League, defeating Milan 1–0 in the final, the first under the UEFA Champions League branding of the tournament. In 2010, Marseille won its first Ligue 1 title in 18 years under the management of former club captain Didier Deschamps.[7]

Marseille's home ground is the 67,394-capacity Stade Vélodrome in the southern part of the city, where they have played since 1937.[8] The stadium underwent renovations between 2011 and 2014, increasing its capacity to 67,000 in preparation for France's hosting of UEFA Euro 2016. The club has a large fan-base, having regularly averaged the highest attendance in French football. Marseille's average home gate for the 2018–19 season was 50,361, the highest in Ligue 1.[9] The club have a long-standing rivalry with Paris Saint-Germain, against whom they contest Le Classique.

In 1997, Marseille was purchased by Franco-Swiss businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus. Following his death in 2009, his widow Margarita became the club's majority shareholder in 2010. American businessman Frank McCourt bought 95% of the club's stake in 2016, and appointed businessman Jacques-Henri Eyraud as the club president, later replaced by Pablo Longoria in 2021.[10]

Marseille was listed in the Deloitte Football Money League at the end of the 2022–2023 season, making it the 20th football club with the highest revenue in the world, approximated at €258 million.[11] In 2023, Marseille was placed twenty-eighth in the global ranking drawn up by the British consultancy organisation Brand Finance in terms of brand power, where it was rated with a credit rating AA ("very strong") with a score of 71.3 out of 100,[12] as well as twenty-eighth in terms of brand value (€173 million)[13] and twenty-eighth by enterprise value (€458 million as of 2023).[14]

  1. ^ "#33 – Olympique de Marseille : les Phocéens" (in French). Footnickname. 3 May 2020. Archived from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  2. ^ "#298 – Olympique de Marseille : les Minots" (in French). Footnickname. 25 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Le stade Orange Vélodrome, une enceinte unique" (in French). OM.fr. 17 November 2021. Archived from the original on 21 March 2023. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  4. ^ "L'OM vendu 45 millions d'euros par Margarita Louis-Dreyfus à Frank McCourt" (in French). L'Équipe. 16 September 2016. Archived from the original on 17 September 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  5. ^ "Ligue 1 - Olympique de Marseille". L'Équipe (in French). Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  6. ^ "Avant la Ligue Europa 2018, les précédentes finales de l'OM". L'Équipe (in French). 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 3 September 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  7. ^ "Didier Deschamps the renaissance man lifts Marseille to the heights". The Guardian. 6 May 2010. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  8. ^ "Velodrome Stadium". om.net. Archived from the original on 28 February 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2008.
  9. ^ "Ligue 1 – Saison 2018-2019 : Le bilan complet des affluences". 13 June 2019. Archived from the original on 25 August 2021. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  10. ^ "McCourt to Buy Marseille Soccer Club". The Wall Street Journal. 29 August 2016. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  11. ^ "Deloitte Football Money League 2024". deloitte.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2024. Retrieved 8 May 2024.
  12. ^ Brand Finance Football 50 (2023, pp. 52)
  13. ^ Brand Finance Football 50 (2023, pp. 49)
  14. ^ Brand Finance Football 50 (2023, pp. 53)