‘After Marseille, I’m not coaching in France again’ – Roberto De Zerbi | OneFootball

Speaking following his side’s 3-0 loss to Auxerre last night, head coach Roberto De Zerbi admitted that he would not ‘coach in France again’ after Marseille, referring to refereeing decisions against his side this season. Speaking to Téléfoot in the aftermath of the loss, the Italian coach said “I’m Italian, and after OM I’m not going to coach in France again. There’s a problem in the French championship, if French people are happy with this level of decision making, then good for them. But today it was scandalous. The referee was not in a serein position to referee this match because of all the controversy surrounding him.”His comments came in the context of controversy surrounding referee Jérémy Stinat and a second yellow given to Marseille defender Derek Cornelius. This was after Marseille had sent a complaint to the board of arbitration of referees in the week over Stinat’s nomination after he was at the centre of the thee-month suspension handed to director of football Medhi Benatia during OM’s Coupe de France elimination against Lille in January. Since then, the tension and paranoia had been mounting at the Phocéen club against refereeing decisions. OM president Pablo Longoria reportedly ‘flew into a fit of rage’ following the match at Auxerre in front of journalists, according to La Provence. “This is corruption! I’ve never seen anything like it. You can write it down: Pablo Longoria says it’s corruption,” Longoria reportedly shouted. “Everything has been organised since the third yellow given to Balerdi (suspended this Saturday against Auxerre). It’s planned, it’s rigged. There’s a penalty on Merlin, four European referees have told me so by message, and the most scandalous thing is the red card to Cornelius.”

Longoria went even further, in the presence of Benatia, the OM comms department, and other members of staff. “This is a shitty championship, If the Super League comes to see us, we’ll go right away.”GFFN | George Boxall