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Cautionary tale for Tottenham: Marseille face sanctions after De Zerbi disaster
3 min read
Analysis
Things are going from bad to worse for French giants Marseille following the implosion of Roberto De Zerbi's project earlier this year.
The Italian manager has not had a great 2026. Although he managed to keep Tottenham in the Premier League in the spring, there hasn't been much progress since. The North London club have yet to win a league game this season.
That's despite shattering their spending record in the summer by shelling out close to €370 million on new signings. At the weekend, Spurs salvaged a late draw against Man Utd with 10 men. It was an encouraging result and performance, but overall, it has been a dire start to the campaign.
The parallels to De Zerbi's previous job at Marseille are uncanny - and should be quite concerning for Spurs fans. The Ligue 1 outfit backed the 47-year-old heavily in the market, but with little to show for it.
In fact, Marseille are now actively paying the price for spending above their means. This year has been an unmitigated disaster for one of French football's most storied clubs, and it could get even worse soon.
Marseille face sanctions
De Zerbi had two main objectives at Marseille that went hand in hand: challenge perennial champions PSG and qualify for the Champions League. Obviously, the latter is an automatic byproduct of the former.
Marseille are stuck in a liminal space where, just by virtue of their stature, they are expected to compete for silverware, yet this expectation has long since ceased to be in any way grounded in reality. In a way, they are quite similar to Tottenham.
For much of last season, OM looked on course to comfortably qualify for the Champions League, but everything unravelled rapidly. By February, the club were in full-on crisis mode.
The combustible De Zerbi quit his job after a 5-0 demolition by rivals PSG, leaving behind a rudderless ship. Under Habib Beye, Marseille contrived to miss out on Champions League football, which has had catastrophic consequences.
Because of their spending in general, but particularly under De Zerbi, qualifying for the Champions League was a must. Earlier in the campaign, director Medhi Benatia described the prospect of missing out on Europe's premier competition as a "disaster."
When this "disaster" was confirmed in May, it was immediately clear that the ramifications for the club would be monumental - and so they proved. In the summer, Marseille were unable to make any signings except to keep three players who had already been on loan.
Two of those three immediately departed again, as did numerous key players, leaving behind a husk of a squad for new manager Bruno Genesio. Predictably, Marseille have struggled this season.
Only last Sunday did they manage to leave the Ligue 1 relegation zone after a 2-0 win over Troyes. It was just their second victory of the season - they have lost four of their six matches.
After years of haemorrhaging money, unpopular owner Frank McCourt has stopped investing in the team, which means that Marseille have to foot the bill for their lack of sporting success themselves.
Even if they manage to stay in Ligue 1 this season, they could start 2027/28 at a significant disadvantage that could threaten their continued top-flight existence. L'Equipe reports that OM has failed to comply with the financial requirements set out by French football's financial watchdog, the DNCG, in June.
As a result, they could be hit with provisional sanctions this winter. While the punishment is not expected to be as draconian as the one Lyon received when they were provisionally relegated to Ligue 2, which ended up being overturned, it will nevertheless sting.
Among the possibilities being considered is a points deduction for next season, which could be devastating if the club don't receive a fresh injection of cash from McCourt or elsewhere.
Marseille's hands remain tied in the market, and more key players are expected to depart in January and next summer. This would leave a squad already short on quality in a disastrous state ahead of 2027/28.
A points deduction, if upheld, would dig them a hole that they might struggle to get out of. Of course, that's all hypothetical at this stage, but it is a concerning situation for one of French football's proudest clubs.
Given the level of spending at Spurs this summer, Marseille's predicament should serve as a cautionary tale. Of course, the finances in the Premier League and Ligue 1 are hardly comparable, but the chickens must inevitably come home to roost if on-pitch success continues to prove elusive.
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