PSG are on verge of a first’ for France
PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN aim to create history in Lisbon today by winning their first ever Champions League Final.
The record books show they would be only the second French team to win the coveted trophy – following Marseille, who became champions in 1993.
But for some of their rivals, Marseille’s 1-0 victory over AC Milan at the old Olympiastadion in Munich is so badly tainted it is not even recognised.
Allegations of bribery and dirty tricks, with Marseille owner Bernard Tapie the central villain, put a question mark against their win.
And if Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and the rest of PSG’S stars manage to overcome Bayern Munich today it will be greeted in some quarters as the FIRST time a team from France has lifted the title cleanly.
Marseille fans still bask in the glory of their narrow win over Fabio
Capello’s mighty AC Milan, in which a Basile Boli header moments before half-time proved decisive.
Didier Deschamps, now manager of France, lifted the Cup and the team returned to the South of France as heroes.
Rocked
But even today, 27 years later, a nasty whiff still follows the victory – with Glasgow Rangers at the heart of a story which rocked the European game.
Rangers came within one goal of a place in the first final of the renamed Champions League, but lost out after a controversial series of events.
The full story surrounding Marseille’s triumph didn’t emerge until two years after the final against Milan on May 26, 1993.
But even before that night, group stage skulduggery left Rangers and England striker Mark Hateley, as well as Ibrox boss Walter Smith, suspicious. Years later when recalling events Smith said: “It sticks in the back of my mind. It still rankles.”
In those early days of the 32-team competition, two rounds of knockout games led to eight second round winners split into two groups of four.
The winners of each group would then meet in the final in Munich.
Marseille were full of top stars, including Deschamps, German striker Rudi Voller, keeper Fabien Barthez,
PARTY TIME: Deschamps and Tapie
Croatian striker Alen Boksic and Boli. But Tapie wanted Euro glory at any cost, and in the group stage Marseille’s 6-0 win over CSKA Moscow brought claims of spiked drinks and French attempts to bribe Russian players.
More dark arts surfaced as Hateley was surprisingly sent off against Club Bruges. That meant he missed a crucial group clash with Marseille – a game Hateley says he had already been offered money to miss.
Cheated
After his red card the angry striker said: “I knew that something had gone off. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Maybe I should have made accusations back then. But we have always felt 100 per cent cheated.”
Two years after their win in Munich, Tapie’s reign unravelled as it emerged he ordered bribes to be paid to help Marseille reach the final in good shape.
Just six days before the Munich final Marseille played lowly
Valenciennes in their final league match of the season.
Tapie wanted his players fresh for their big day and during a party on his yacht midfielder Jean-jacques Eydelie was ordered to approach friends who played for Valenciennes.
In a book years later Eydelie says Tapie told him, ‘We don’t want them acting like idiots and breaking us before the final with Milan!’.
On the eve of the match with Valenciennes, Eydelie handed over cash to one of their opponents’ wives, with police also finding £40,000 in the garden of another player.
After the scandal broke, Eydelie and Tapie were handed prison terms as it emerged that Marseille regularly attempted to bribe opponents and referees at home and abroad.
Marseille were stripped of their 1992-93 French title, but to the dismay of Rangers and AC Milan were allowed to keep their European crown.
Now, Neymar and Co can do their bit for PSG to restore French honour.