Marseille’s Ibrox visit evokes bitter European memories for the Rangers stars of 1993
BERNARD TAPIE is unlikely to have much interest in events at Ibrox this afternoon. He has things other than football on his mind these days.
On May 18, Tapie was ordered by France’s highest appeals court to repay £345million originally awarded to him in 2008 over the disputed sale of sportswear firm adidas.
At the age of 74, this one-time politician, singer and business mogul remains a magnet for high-profile controversy.
Stories from his infamous and varied careers are legion. On these shores, however, Tapie’s name will be forever linked with his time as president of Olympique Marseille — and the suspicion that shrouds their 1993 Champions League success.
For some Rangers fans, the idea of the clubs playing a ‘friendly’ remains disagreeable almost a quarter of a century after two epic confrontations.
A 2-2 draw on a rain-sodden Glasgow night in November 1992 came first. Any appraisal of Gary McSwegan’s career is obligated to include mention of his looping header that started a late comeback.
Then, on April 7, 1993, Walter Smith’s side entered the old Stade Velodrome knowing victory could all but secure a place in the final of Europe’s elite competition.
‘When we came out for the game, there was a lot of smoke and noise,’ recalls left-back David Robertson, one of the nine Scots in Smith’s starting line-up.
‘It was an intimidating atmosphere, but the magnitude of the game or the opportunity in front of us wasn’t foremost in our minds. It was just about getting on with it.’
Behind to a first-half finish from Franck Sauzee, Ian Durrant’s brilliant equaliser kept Rangers level on points with their hosts in a format where the group winner would progress to meet AC Milan.
Marseille would ultimately take that step by winning their last group game against Club Bruges as CSKA Moscow held on for a goalless stalemate at Ibrox.
Future Rangers defender Basile Boli then scored the goal that made Marseille the first — and still only — French winners of the Champions League. An historic feat, but the silverware tarnished quickly.
Six days before the final against Milan in Munich, Marseille had faced a struggling Valenciennes team in Ligue 1. They won 1-0, but allegations soon emerged that the Valenciennes players had been offered money to ‘go easy’.
Tapie was ordered to step down as Marseille president. He was eventually sentenced to eight months in jail over the matchfixing scandal.
The club were stripped of their French league title, denied entry to European competition and relegated to the Second Division. But their place on the Champions League roll of honour remained untouched.
Still, though, the questions lingered. In 2011, Mark Hateley claimed he was offered ‘large sums of money’ not to play against Marseille by a ‘friend of a friend’ from his playing days in France.
Hateley refused but missed the vital match anyway after being harshly sent off in the preceding game against Club Bruges.
‘As soon as that (red card) came out, the phone call came straight to the front of my mind again,’ said Hateley, pondering whether the referee may have been a further target of nefarious work.
On the same night when Rangers’ powerful striker was incurring an ill-deserved suspension, Marseille were boosting their goal difference with a 6-0 home thumping of CSKA.
The Russian coach later made allegations of bribery attempts, before subsequently withdrawing the claim.
‘What came out later left a bitter taste in the mouth,’ admits John Brown, the Rangers stalwart who played every minute of the two Marseille matches. ‘But I still thought we had two games to beat Marseille and we didn’t do it. The thing that probably cost us was that Hateley and Ally McCoist didn’t play together in either game against them.
‘Mark was suspended for the game in France. We felt that if we had them both playing in either of those games, then that would have been enough to get us to the final.
‘We had beaten Leeds home and away and I felt we were capable of beating Marseille as well. The fact we had come back from two goals down in the first game in Glasgow had left a bit of fear in them.
‘Marseille had real top players — Rudi Voller and Alen Boskic were an absolute handful, probably the toughest striking pair I ever came across — and we played against the likes of (Gianluca) Vialli, (Fabrizio) Ravanelli and so on.
‘There was also (Marcel) Desailly, (Didier) Deschamps, (Jocelyn) Angloma, (Fabien) Barthez, Abedi Pele and the rest.
‘The thing is — if it is true about all the stuff that went on — they wouldn’t have needed to bribe anyone. Not with that squad.’
Speaking in 2010, manager Smith admitted the affair still rankled with him. A ten-game Champions League campaign ended without defeat, but cloaked in thoughts of what might have been.
Rangers went 44 games unbeaten in all competitions in that phenomenal season, completing a clean sweep of domestic trophies.
‘Walter is one of the greatest Rangers managers ever, maybe the greatest,’ argued Robertson.
‘For him personally, to have reached a Champions League final would have been an amazing achievement.
‘It was still a fantastic feat, especially as he worked under the three-foreigner rule. You just don’t know what could have transpired. We were better than Bruges and Moscow.
‘I would love to say I played in a Champions League final. I’d also like to say I won more Scotland caps. But I don’t look back with complaints on my career.
‘At the time, people were talking about scenarios where Marseille
Bernard Tapie was sentenced to eight months jail for match-fixing
might be stripped of the cup. Maybe we would get to play AC Milan.
‘Realistically, though, they were never going to change it. It was disappointing but, by the time it came out, we had moved on.
‘We did not have the (Brian) Laudrups or the (Paul) Gascoignes. Or even the era of (Dick) Advocaat when the (Arthur) Numans, (Ronald and Frank) de Boers — but we had that will to win and we were fighters.’ Now owned by American billionaire Frank McCourt, the reflections created by Marseille’s presence in Glasgow throw a sharp contrast on the present day.
If defeat to Luxembourg minnows Progres Niederkorn earlier this month was Rangers’ worst-ever European result, some of their finest feats were in season 1992-93.
‘I think it will stand the test of time,’ said Brown.
‘It was still the European Cup when I first joined Rangers under Graeme Souness. Then it became the Champions League, but you had to be the champions of your country to compete.
‘If my memory is right, in five out of nine seasons we were beaten by the eventual tournament winners. That is how tough it was.
‘I was lunching with Richard Gough recently and we were talking about those games against Marseille.
‘We’ll reflect on it again this Saturday. It’s a great memory of a great season.’
At the time, there was talk that Marseille might be stripped of the cup