EXCLUSIVE | Tony Cascarino: ‘Marseille are still the biggest club in France.’

EXCLUSIVE | Tony Cascarino: ‘Marseille are still the biggest club in France.’ Former Ireland international and Olympique de Marseille cult legend Tony Cascarino sat down with Get French Football News to discuss his time at the Ligue 1 side and the current situation the club finds itself in . You became a cult figure at Marseille, where supporters called you “Tony Goal”. How did that move come about? After the 1994 World Cup, I was out of contract and recovering from injury. I had offers from clubs such as Notts County and Blackpool, and I was sitting at breakfast with John Sheridan, showing him the faxes. He told me not to rule anything out, then joked that Blackpool’s Big Dipper was a great ride. Then I received a message from an agent saying Marseille were interested. I genuinely thought it was a prank. Marseille had been relegated the season after winning the European Cup; they had restrictions on transfers, and they were looking for an international free transfer. I happened to fit that profile. Suddenly, I had gone from having no club to going to Paris to meet Bernard Tapie. What was Bernard Tapie like? He was an extraordinary character – intense, confrontational and completely dominant. He had an iron-fist approach. I have often said he ran a football club with boxing gloves on, because he fought everybody and everything to get what he wanted. At our first meeting, he asked what sort of player I was. Before I could answer, he started naming players: “Hoddle?” I told him no. “Trevor Steven?” Again, no. Then he said, “Mark Hateley?” I said I was more like Mark Hateley, and he seemed satisfied. I handed him a piece of paper setting out what I wanted financially. He looked at it and threw it in the bin. He could be intimidating. After a match against Olympiacos, when I missed two chances, he thought I had been paid off because I had spoken to an English journalist before the game. He took his jacket off in the dressing room and squared up to me. The other players had to get around me. There were clearly controversies around Tapie and Marseille, and I understand why people criticise aspects of that era. But there is no arguing with the quality of sides he produced. He was relentless, and he set a standard that players did not challenge. What is your view of Marseille’s present situation, and does French football need the club to be successful? The alarm bells started ringing at the end of last season when it felt like everybody was up for sale. Marseille have had financial problems for a long time and have not evolved in the way modern elite clubs have. The collapse of France’s television deal made the situation worse. PSG can absorb that sort of financial hit, but Marseille, Lyon, Monaco and other French clubs cannot. It has made Ligue 1 feel increasingly like a one-club league. For me, Marseille are still the biggest club in France. PSG have achieved what they have achieved, but Marseille’s support, history and identity are different. French football needs Marseille to be competitive. But when you see top players leave and the club losing the strongest part of its squad, it is difficult to see a route back to Champions League football in the short term. Lille and Lyon look better placed, while PSG remain on another level. Marseille have the infrastructure and a huge fanbase, but they need serious investment. The problem is that people who have been involved with the club seem to have had their fingers burnt. I cannot see a clear way out unless someone with enormous resources arrives — and even then, the financial rules and the scale of Premier League revenues make it extremely difficult to compete. What would Bernard Tapie have made of Marseille’s current position? He would definitely have tried to do something. Tapie always believed he had to do more than everyone else. But the scale of the challenge now is enormous. Even very wealthy ownership does not automatically close the gap because the revenues of England’s major clubs are so vast. A club can have strong backing but still struggle to compete with the spending power and commercial income at the top of the Premier League. I hope I am wrong, but I cannot see Marseille being dramatically different in five years’ time unless something major changes. Tony Cascarino was speaking exclusively to GFFN on behalf of Tonybet . GFFN | Nick Hartland