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Scotsman
4 days ago
- Sport
- Scotsman
'Annoying': PSG can stop France's Champions League rot and draw level with Celtic
Marseille's tarnished triumph remains solitary title for pioneering nation - but that could change Sign up to our Football newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Here's a Saturday morning puzzler for you: What do Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Feyenoord, Olympique Marseille, Aston Villa, PSV Eindhoven, Hamburg, Red Star Belgrade, Steaua Bucharest and Celtic all have in common? Admittedly, it's a question that may need amended slightly later this evening. As it stands, though, these are the ten teams that have won European football's biggest club competition just once, with seven of them, including Celtic, doing so when it was known as the European Cup. Only three – Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Marseille – joined this once-only club since the Champions League was rebranded in 1992. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A fourth may join them this evening. If Paris St-Germain do lift the trophy against Internazionale, it's hard to see this coming team of Europe remaining part of the one-time-only club for too long. Mark you, they said that in 1993, when Marseille finally broke France's duck by winning the Champions League in the inaugural season of the revamped tournament, as Rangers know to their cost. Marseille players celebrate their victory after defeating AC Milan 1-0 in the final of the European Champions Cup, on May 26, 1993 in Munich. | AFP via Getty Images Owner Bernard Tapie's comments afterwards do seem a little suspicious now. 'At last a French victory,' he said. 'I expected it, I was very confident before the match…' Of course, the club – and Tapie, who died in 2021– later became embroiled in a match-fixing controversy. Just days after the victory in Munich, where tonight's final will also be played, accusations emerged that Marseille had tried to bribe Valenciennes in a league match shortly before they faced Milan. They were later stripped of the league title they won that year and relegated as further punishment the following season. Although denied the right to defend the trophy the following year by Uefa, the Champions League title remains intact on their honours board. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad France and Scotland in the same boat Indeed, if you visit the club website and click on trophies, the first picture that comes up is of Didier Deschamps lifting the famous big-eared cup in the air. A goal from defender Basile Boli proved the difference that night; the former Rangers player later described it as 'a header for eternity'. Tainted or otherwise, this remains France's only European Cup success to date. In fact, you cold boil the quiz question in the opening paragraph down further. What does France have in common with Scotland, Romania and Serbia, or at least the former Yugoslavia? They are the nations with just a sole European Cup to their name – won, respectively, by Celtic, Steaua Bucharest and Partizan Belgrade. While it's something to celebrate in the case of Scotland (population 5.5 million), Romania (population 19 million) and Serbia (population 6.5 million), it's a source of national shame for France (population 69 million). It's particularly embarrassing given the country conceived the competition – or at least their leading sports newspaper, L'Equipe, did. Journalist Gabriel Hanot came up with the blueprint for a European club competition in December 1954 and shortly afterwards his colleague Jacques de Ryswick wrote an article outlining the idea for such a tournament involving champions of each country and inviting clubs to discuss the proposal. Reims came close to defeating Real Madrid in the 1950s. | AFP via Getty Images Just over a year later, Hibs were contesting a semi-final second leg against French club Stade de Reims in front of 50,000 under the new floodlights at Easter Road. Afterwards, in a speech at a post-match banquet attended by both teams and match officials, SFA secretary George Graham, who was also a member of the European committee, explained how the competition was first suggested by a French newspaper. He added that despite initial criticism and scepticism (as well as some controversy - Aberdeen, Scotland's champions, were overlooked in favour of Hibs), the European Cup had already proved a success. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Graham hoped it would be 'the pattern for the future'. It has certainly proved that even if the format has undergone several changes in the eight decades since. The tournament's somewhat amateurish origins are summed up by English referee Arthur E. Ellis, who was handed the Hibs v Reims tie in Edinburgh, bringing his brother Frank with him to run one of the lines. Ellis recorded this in a column for his local newspaper the Halifax Evening Courier, where he also provided some eyebrow-raising details about his eve-of-match activities after being given the privilege of refereeing the first-ever European Cup final a few weeks later. Some Parisian frolicking 'Visiting Paris is always a pleasant experience for me because I have come to know so many of its football officials,' he writes. 'We are usually taken around nightclubs and also to see one of the typical French shows.' This visit was no exception, the show he says he saw at the Mayol Theatre 'certainly wouldn't have passed the Halifax Watch Committee'. Ellis continues: 'There were 42 scenes in the show and 34 of these consisted of girls removing their clothing very artistically.' Seated a few pews away, notes Ellis, was the French star Maurice Chevalier, then in his mid-60s. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As for the game itself, at Parc des Princes, one wonders what might have happened had Ellis not disallowed the goal that would have put Reims 3-0 up on this Wednesday evening in June. Could Real Madrid have come back from that? Inspired by Alfredo di Stefano, they had drawn level at 2-2 by half time. With the BBC taking live coverage of only the second half, viewers saw Real put paid to French hopes of winning the first ever tournament in Paris. The Spanish club alone have since won the trophy another 14 times while France have mustered a single, slightly dubious victory. Meanwhile, proud old Reims, who contested two of the first four finals, were relegated from Ligue 1 on Thursday night having lost last weekend's French Cup final to …..Paris Saint-Germain, who now have their sights on a quadruple. PSG won the Coupe de France last week. | AFP via Getty Images 'It is quite…..annoying for France,' accepts Gilles Rousset, the former Hearts goalkeeper who won two international caps, when considering this tale of consistent under achievement by French clubs in Europe full stop. Standing at just two titles (PSG won the Cup-Winners' Cup in 1996) in 70 years, it's the tread of failure left in the European Cup/Champions League that smarts most. 'Obviously France is a big country in terms of football,' he continues. 'But not in terms of clubs. We do not have a tradition of big European clubs.' He mentions St Etienne, who, like Reims, have just been relegated from France's top flight. Les Verts were winning hearts, if not European Cups, before PSG were even formed. In 1976 Dominique Rocheteau et al were beaten in a memorable final at Hampden by Bayern Munich, a game which the young Rousset, then just 12-years-old, can remember watching at home in the south of France, where he grew up. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It was the night the legend of the square posts was born – St Etienne contend that if the Hampden goal frame been a more conventional round shape, then they would have been European champions. They saw a shot and a header hit the woodwork and bounce out rather than in. It is one of 15 European finals in which a French side has finished runners-up, with St Etienne perhaps the most celebrated of the losing finalists. French football 'cannot attract big names' 'It is quite curious,' continues Rousset, who is now assistant manager of the Luxembourg national team. 'We have only won one European Cup. One reason is the French clubs are not very strong financially. That is a big factor now. The taxes in France are very high. We cannot attract big names. Only PSG can attract big names. They spend a fortune on players, a fortune on salaries and a fortune on signing-on fees. It cost them fortunes but they are backed by Qatar. When you can have Neymar, Messi and Mbappe in the team at the same time, the proves you are very strong financially.' But even then, PSG came up short in the Champions League. Neymar and Mbappe were involved when they lost in the final to Bayern Munich behind closed doors in 2020. Messi was recruited with the principal aim of winning the competition. However, PSG didn't make it beyond the last 16. It's why tonight feels so significant though rather like in Scotland if Rangers or Celtic were in the Champions League final, not everyone in France is necessarily wishing them well. 'PSG is a different case in France,' says Rousset, now 61. 'They are not really loved by the people….because it is Paris. And Paris is always not well regarded by the rest of the country, because it is the capital, they think they are better people…..Not just in football, in life. They are not loved in the rest of the country. And in terms of football, PSG are not very well loved because they have money from a different county. But they, of course, can do what they want.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad St Etienne goalkeeper Yvan Curkovic stops the ball on the line during the 1976 European Cup final against Bayern Munich at Hampden. | SNS Group 0141 221 3602 As Rousset points out, they have been playing very good football. Admiration, if not love, has been earned on the pitch thanks to dazzling displays from a young and hungry team including 20-year-old Desire Doue and inspirational winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. They might even be the neutrals' choice this evening. 'They are playing collective football, rather than the individual football with Messi, Neymar and Mbappe,' says Rousset, who can remember very well the last and only time a French club side won the European crown, because he joined them shortly afterwards as cover for Fabien Barthez. 'At that time, he signed all the best French players,' explains Rousset. 'And at that time there were not a lot of French players in other leagues. Now you have French players all over the place. He signed the best French players, like Franck Sauzee, Basile Boli, Papin…players like that. You were only allowed three foreigners. You had to sign the best French players and that is what he did.' Tapie's charisma 'He', of course, is Tapie, the businessman-politician who pushed the envelope at Marseille in more ways than one. 'He was a very charismatic guy,' says Rousset. 'He knew how to speak to players. I know, because when I was at Marseille he was the chairman. It was fantastic to be one of his players. Sometimes he played fast and loose – he paid the players of the other side to let Marseille win. They did not need that. They were good enough. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We were punished," he adds. "We were not allowed to play in Europe. We should have played in the Champions League, in the Intercontinental Cup, in everything! But we played in absolutely nothing. There was a big money problem. They sold Marcel Desailly, they sold (Alen) Boksic, we were relegated at the end of the year. I had to go myself as well.' He can now laugh now. The day after he signed, Marseille's world imploded. 'All the bad stories starting coming out, evidence proving what had gone on," he recalls. French goalkeeper Gilles Rousset during his time at Hearts. | Getty Images 'But it was a good year. Marseille is something really, really special. Marseille is a club like no other. Their fans are absolutely mad. I watched Sunderland last week, it's probably the same spirit. The madness when Sunderland got promoted. It was fantastic. I loved that.' He has no regrets. 'When Marseille come to you and say would you like to join, you say, 'Yes, of course!' Because they were the best team in Europe. Imagine if Liverpool ask you to come now? Of course I want to come.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It seems notable that he doesn't use PSG to illustrate this point - many believe they are the best team in Europe, and they will finally prove it in Munich (after all, they beat Liverpool en route). Allez PSG Despite his connection to Marseille, Rousset would still like PSG to win, for the sake of France as much as anything and because of his friends, such as former Hearts teammate Vincent Guerin, who played for the club. Rousset did not support a team growing up – 'my favourite club are Hearts!' he says – so he is not as conflicted as some might be in his native land.
The Star
26-05-2025
- Sport
- The Star
Soccer-Inter jerseys fly off shelves in Marseille before PSG's Champions League final
PARIS (Reuters) -In Marseille, the only French city with a European Cup to its name, an unexpected fashion trend has emerged - Inter Milan jerseys are flying off the shelves as Olympique de Marseille supporters back the Italian side against their bitter rivals Paris St Germain in Saturday's Champions League final. Inter shirts have been selling fast in the port city, which celebrated OM's Champions League triumph in 1993. "It's crazy, everyone wants the Inter jersey. All year long, there's no demand, nobody wants this jersey. And now, it's like the whole city of Marseille has turned Interista. We're really going to pray for Inter to win," Ismael, a vendor at a major sports shop in Marseille, told French TV channel BFM. The son of former OM president Bernard Tapie, who led the club to the 1993 title, said he would support Inter as well. "A true OM supporter can't be happy if PSG wins the Champions League. For France, it would be good for PSG to win it. But me, I'm supporting Inter Milan. Ask any real OM fan — we're all fully behind Inter," Laurent Tapie was quoted as saying by French media. In 2020, OM fans celebrated at the Old Port when PSG lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. French clubs have played in seven European Cup finals, losing six of them between Stade de Reims (2), PSG, St Etienne, Monaco and Marseille. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ed Osmond)
Reuters
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Inter jerseys fly off shelves in Marseille before PSG's Champions League final
PARIS, May 26 (Reuters) - In Marseille, the only French city with a European Cup to its name, an unexpected fashion trend has emerged - Inter Milan jerseys are flying off the shelves as Olympique de Marseille supporters back the Italian side against their bitter rivals Paris St Germain in Saturday's Champions League final. Inter shirts have been selling fast in the port city, which celebrated OM's Champions League triumph in 1993. "It's crazy, everyone wants the Inter jersey. All year long, there's no demand, nobody wants this jersey. And now, it's like the whole city of Marseille has turned Interista. We're really going to pray for Inter to win," Ismael, a vendor at a major sports shop in Marseille, told French TV channel BFM. The son of former OM president Bernard Tapie, who led the club to the 1993 title, said he would support Inter as well. "A true OM supporter can't be happy if PSG wins the Champions League. For France, it would be good for PSG to win it. But me, I'm supporting Inter Milan. Ask any real OM fan — we're all fully behind Inter," Laurent Tapie was quoted as saying by French media. In 2020, OM fans celebrated at the Old Port when PSG lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. French clubs have played in seven European Cup finals, losing six of them between Stade de Reims (2), PSG, St Etienne, Monaco and Marseille.
Straits Times
26-05-2025
- Sport
- Straits Times
Inter jerseys fly off shelves in Marseille before PSG's Champions League final
PARIS - In Marseille, the only French city with a European Cup to its name, an unexpected fashion trend has emerged - Inter Milan jerseys are flying off the shelves as Olympique de Marseille supporters back the Italian side against their bitter rivals Paris St Germain in Saturday's Champions League final. Inter shirts have been selling fast in the port city, which celebrated OM's Champions League triumph in 1993. "It's crazy, everyone wants the Inter jersey. All year long, there's no demand, nobody wants this jersey. And now, it's like the whole city of Marseille has turned Interista. We're really going to pray for Inter to win," Ismael, a vendor at a major sports shop in Marseille, told French TV channel BFM. The son of former OM president Bernard Tapie, who led the club to the 1993 title, said he would support Inter as well. "A true OM supporter can't be happy if PSG wins the Champions League. For France, it would be good for PSG to win it. But me, I'm supporting Inter Milan. Ask any real OM fan — we're all fully behind Inter," Laurent Tapie was quoted as saying by French media. In 2020, OM fans celebrated at the Old Port when PSG lost to Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. French clubs have played in seven European Cup finals, losing six of them between Stade de Reims (2), PSG, St Etienne, Monaco and Marseille. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
