A public feud the board did not sign off on
Ali Zarrak spoke first and told the club afterwards. That is the short version of why Marseille’s hierarchy called him in this Monday, according to La Provence and RMC Sport.
Zarrak, 34, sat down with L’Équipe to answer Jean-Pierre Papin, who coached the OM reserves between November 2023 and June 2025. Papin has accused the former assistant to Medhi Benatia of “moral harassment”. Zarrak’s reply was blunt: “totally false”. He added that the conclusions of an inquiry cleared him, and he went after Papin’s coaching record in terms that left little room for a truce.
The problem for Marseille is not the content alone. Club protocol requires management to approve an interview of this kind, and RMC Sport reports Zarrak did not ask for that approval. He is understood to have warned his bosses only the day before it ran.
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Calm was supposed to be the plan
The timing stings. Things had settled at the Vélodrome since Stéphane Richard took over as president, with Grégory Lorenzi as sporting director and Bruno Genesio on the bench. A solo move that reopens an old dispute cuts against that mood.
Papin, a 1991 Ballon d’Or winner, had said an outside investigation into the matter was never completed and that he never learned who stopped it or why. Zarrak says the opposite: the findings were delivered and found nothing against him.
For now, the reprimand looks like the end of it. Nothing has been started to part ways with Zarrak, who remains in the club’s structure. Whether Papin answers again is the open question, and the next few days will show whether Marseille’s dressing-down was enough to close the subject.
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