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In Marseille, palace revolutions are occurring at a frantic pace. What should have been an ordinary day on the side of OM, if the season had unfolded as expected by the managers, with radiant sunshine and a quiet reception of FC Metz at the V\u00e9lodrome, turned into a new uproar, with the arrival of the American owner Frank McCourt and the presentation of the new Marseille president, St\u00e9phane Richard.<\/p>\n
A graduate of HEC and former student of ENA, St\u00e9phane Richard worked in particular at the Financial Inspectorate, the office of the Socialist Minister of Industry Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former Compagnie G\u00e9n\u00e9rale des Eaux and Veolia Environnement. He was also the chief of staff of Jean-Louis Borloo and Christine Lagarde at the Ministry of the Economy and above all headed Orange, of which he was long perceived as the “unsinkable” boss, capable of resisting political alternations for more than a decade, from 2011 to 2022.<\/p>\n
At the time, the operator was still in shock from the \u201cwave of suicides\u201d, the brutal death of 35 employees, sometimes at work, between 2008 and 2009. But he had to let go of the controls of the former historic operator after his conviction in the controversial arbitration case between Bernard Tapie and Cr\u00e9dit Lyonnais. After a general acquittal in July 2019, St\u00e9phane Richard was sentenced on appeal to a one-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50,000 euros for complicity in the misappropriation of public property. He was chief of staff to the Minister of the Economy, Christine Lagarde, at the time of the arbitration.<\/p>\n
In 2025, following a third trial, the offense was reclassified as \u201cnegligence\u201d and he was finally sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. After Pablo Longoria, the scout\/recruiter with a purely sporting profile, we now have a manager with a technocratic profile who reminds us more of Jacques-Henri Eyraud than of Pablito.<\/p>\n