Olympique de Marseille

	Country:	France
	Competition:	Ligue 1
	website:	Olympique de Marseille
	Wiki:	wiki
	Founded in:	1899
	Stadium:	Stade Vélodrome
	Chairman:	Vincent Labrune
	Coach:	Élie Baup

Olympique de Marseille is a Ligue 1. top football club from the southern French city of Marseille. It was founded in 1899 and the club colours are light blue and white, which can also be seen in the crest and home and away kits. Olympique de Marseille play their home games in Stade Velodrome, which holds a capacity of 60,000 seats. The Stade Velodrome has its name from the original purpose, namely cycling. The cyclists have been replaced by football players, yet the name remains (velo means bike in French). Olympique de Marseille's owner is Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, but the club is chaired by Vincent Labrune. Things have been quiet with the current ownership, yet during the 90's when Bernard Tapie was chairman of Olympique de Marseille, the club was relegated to the second french division, Ligue 2. in 1994, because of match fixing. Also the 1993 Ligue 1. championship was revoked and Olympique de Marseille was not allowed to defend their Champions League win of 1993.

After two years in the Ligue 2. Marseille was promoted to the Ligue 1. and has stayed there ever since. The national championship was won nine times, most recently in 2010 after not having won the Ligue 1. for 18 years. The coup de France was won ten times, which is a French record. The last time, though, was in 1989. Internationally, Olympique de Marseille, won the 1993 Champions League, beating AC Milan with 1-0. Two years before, Olympique de Marseille already were the runners-up, when they lost to Red Star Belgrade by penalty kicks. Olympique de Marseille never won the UEFA Cup/Europa League, but were close to winning twice. However in both 1999 and 2004, the final was lost. Parma and Valencia CF won the cup respectively. Also the 2005 Intertoto Cup was won, yet this cup only give access to the Europa League.

Olympique de Marseille has had some international known players in their squad. Famous former players are Jean-Pierre Papin, Djibril Cissé and Franck Ribery. In today's squad notable players are Steve Mananda, Benoit Cheyrou and Mathieu Valbuena.

Olympique de Marseille has rivalries with other top French Ligue 1. clubs like Paris Saint Germain. This top rivalry is not only based on football itself, but also on Paris being the capital and Marseille being a city in the Provence. Also it is the match of the north against the south and the match is often called as such. Unibet tv offers PSG Marseille live football stream for free. Sign up now!