Marseille set to complete comeback

When the Marseille team step out at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium tonight they will complete a sporting comeback that could have been scripted in Hollywood. It has it all, corruption, intrigue, a president in prison and maybe, just maybe, the happy ending of a European triumph.

It is six years since Bernard Tapie's Marseille were relegated to the Second Division and left on the verge of bankruptcy. Tonight they will attempt to become the first French side to win the UEFA Cup.

The bribery scandal submerged Marseille in the months after their finest hour, the European Cup victory over Milan which they were banned from defending, and the club's rebirth as a force in Europe has been driven by the city's pride in its team and its resentment of the capital.

Despite the verdicts of UEFA and the French Football Association, Tapie, who served a prison sentence for almost two years for corruption, and fans claimed the charge of bribing players in a decisive league match against Valenciennes in 1993 was a Paris-inspired fraud.

"A myth, a faith, a combat" is the club's motto. It is an apt slogan to sum up the recovery from the wilderness years after the club was stripped of its First Division title and relegated for the 1994-95 season.

Chris Waddle, a hero during his three years at Marseille, is still not convinced that the scandal was necessary. "It was strange," he said," because if you looked at the playing staff they could beat most sides around and they didn't need to do it."

The affair also raised doubts about Marseille's 1-0 win over Milan, the first European trophy won by a French club and achieved six days after the 1-0 victory over Valenciennes.

"Tapie always wanted to win the European Cup and it became a bit of an obsession with him," said Waddle. "He's a lovely bloke and if you give 100 per cent he responds because he wants to win."

Yet disgrace was heaped on Tapie and the city. It inspired the club to rebuild and a new administration set in motion a plan to reinvigorate the most successful and best-supported club in France.

"You could see the potential. There was always going to be people who wanted to take over," said Waddle. "When you can get 40,000 and have the potential to win the league there will always be interest. The rest of France was always jealous and enjoyed it when Marseille were in the gutter, but they always seem to get the last laugh."

Promotion back to the First Division, achieved in 1996 without Tapie but with the Irish stalwart Tony Cascarino, attracted to the club Reynald Pedros of France and the German goalkeeper Andreas Kopke, who would end the season a European champion.

Yet the main source of rejuvenation came from the fans. "If they've got £30 in their pocket and the choice of buying food, paying the rent or going to watch Marseille, they will go and watch Marseille," said Waddle.

Transformation of the playing staff was complemented by the conversion of the Stade Velodrome into a 60,000 all-seater for the 1998 World Cup. A television station, OMTV, was launched and the changes have taken Marseille back to the top of French football. Despite tonight's final, against Parma, conquering the European stage will take longer.

"We are a long way from matching Manchester United and Bayern Munich," said the club's president Robert Louis Dreyfus. "The perfect example was when I went to the club shop, there weren't any team shirts. These are just details but it's what makes the difference."

Marseille cannot yet match the giants of Europe but they can boast World Cup winners in Laurent Blanc, Christophe Dugarry and Robert Pires.

Any side would struggle, though, with the injuries and suspensions that Rolland Courbis's team have accrued, partly as a result of the brawl at the end of their semi-final in Bologna.

Liverpool fans may be dismayed to know that, despite the absence of Dugarry and Fabrizio Ravanelli among others, Titi Camara, who will play at Anfield next season, can get a place only on the bench tonight.

Marseille, unlike Liverpool, have transferred their strength in depth from the terraces to the pitch.