Chapter 6

While most European teams were preparing for a busy summer, a major event occurred in European football: the newly crowned European Cup champions, Marseille, the dominant force in the French Ligue 1, were suspected of bribing players from the opposing team to play a fixed match in a Ligue 1 game last season.

The details of the match-fixing scandal were soon exposed by the relentless journalists. The sequence of events was as follows:

On May 19, 1993, the French Ligue 1 was nearing its conclusion. Marseille, who had already won four consecutive Ligue 1 titles, led the league by 4 points, and the league championship was almost within their grasp. However, for Marseille, the league was no longer as important, as they were set to face the renowned AC Milan in the European Cup final in Munich six days later.

Marseille had historically reached the European Cup final in 1991 but lost to Red Star Belgrade in a penalty shootout. Now was their chance to realize their dream of European dominance.

However, the next day, Marseille was not facing AC Milan but Valenciennes, a team struggling at the bottom of the Ligue 1. Although Valenciennes was on the brink of relegation, they were still fighting hard to avoid it.

Marseille did not want to lose, nor did they want their players to be injured or fatigued for the European Cup final on May 26. Thus, the Marseille club took a huge risk and bribed key players of Valenciennes, including Christophe Robert. The next day, Marseille won 1-0, a result that was not surprising given the disparity in team strength, so few people paid special attention to the match.

After the match, a journalist from L'Équipe learned from Valenciennes player Grégoire Glassmann that Marseille had bribed three of his teammates, including himself. L'Équipe was very cautious and only published a brief news item in an inconspicuous position. Since Marseille was about to play in the European Cup final, the French football community did not pay much attention. Only the president of the French Professional Football League, François Le Guen, publicly stated that the matter would be investigated after the match.

Six days later, Marseille defeated AC Milan in the final, winning France's first European Cup. As people were celebrating, L'Équipe published a full-page article exposing the Marseille match-fixing scandal and an editorial.

The French Professional Football League took a clear stance and initiated legal proceedings, and the French judicial authorities quickly intervened. On June 8, the league committee filed a complaint, the court accepted the case on June 9, and a special judge was appointed on June 11 to investigate the matter. In contrast, the French Football Federation was much more "cautious" and did not intervene until nearly five months after the incident.

At the time, the president of Marseille, Bernard Tapie, was a prominent figure in both French politics and economics. He had served as a minister in the French government and was a member of parliament, as well as the controlling shareholder of Adidas. This made it easy for him to use his influence in politics and the media to interfere with the investigation.

Meanwhile, the then French President François Mitterrand publicly stated at a press conference that the judicial authorities had gone too far in this matter.

However, the investigation did not stop. With the "confession" of Grégoire Glassmann, player Claudio Caniggia (a member of the 1986 Argentine World Cup team) soon admitted that someone had approached him and offered money to throw the match.

On June 24, Christophe Robert, under psychological pressure, turned himself in to the French Football Federation. The police, based on his confession, dug up 2.5 million francs in cash buried in the backyard of his mother-in-law's house.

The scandal shocked not only French football but also the world of football. FIFA was furious and ordered the French Football Federation to take strict action. The hesitant French Football Federation finally handed the case over to the judicial authorities, and Marseille was stripped of their participation in the European Super Cup, the Toyota Cup, and the next season's European Cup.

On July 1, 10 Marseille players, including famous stars like Jürgen Klinsmann, Marcel Desailly, Basile Boli, and Abedi Pele, were taken into custody and questioned. The police also searched the offices of Marseille officials.

In the office of Marseille's general manager, Jean-Claude Bénet, the police found several envelopes identical to those received by Christophe Robert, and the staples on the desk matched those on the envelopes. After obtaining sufficient evidence, the police immediately arrested Bénet.

In the early hours of July 6, Bénet was flown from Marseille to Lille and then taken by police car to Valenciennes to be interrogated by Judge Béthune.

Everyone knew that Bénet was the second-in-command at Marseille, so the club's owner, Bernard Tapie, was also implicated.

Tapie was a highly ambitious and pragmatic politician and businessman who had served as the French Minister for Urban Development. After Bénet's arrest, Tapie was also exposed.

As a穿越者 (time traveler), Zhuang Mingge was well aware of the process and the final outcomes of this shocking football scandal.

On February 10, 1994, Tapie was charged with involvement in the bribery, and on April 22, the French Football Federation's special committee made a decision to revoke Marseille's 1992-1993 Ligue 1 title, demote the club to the second division, and strip Tapie of his control over the club. Bénet was also banned from working in football for life.

On March 17, 1995, after 700 days of silence, Bénet finally revealed the mastermind behind the Marseille match-fixing scandal in a French court.

Bénet said, "Today I will tell the truth. Nine days before the match between Marseille and Valenciennes, Tapie ordered me to find a way to ensure that Marseille won the match easily to preserve their strength for the match against AC Milan." Bénet admitted to the bribery but also stated, "I acted on Tapie's orders. In the Marseille club, no one could offer a bribe without Tapie's approval."

Bénet's testimony in court was like a bomb, disrupting the "logical structure" that the involved parties had secretly constructed. It convinced the court and left Tapie with no way to defend himself. With the evidence clear, Tapie's parliamentary immunity was immediately revoked, and he was sent to prison.

On May 16, 1995, after two years of investigation and trial, the final verdict in the Marseille match-fixing case was announced. Tapie was found guilty as the mastermind and sentenced to one year in prison and a one-year ban from attending any football matches after his release. The other individuals involved in the bribery also received appropriate punishments. Thus, the scandal that had been widely publicized in the media for two years finally came to an end.

Tapie, the owner of Marseille, not only faced criminal penalties but also had to leave the football world due to the exposure and handling of the case. His business empire was on the brink of bankruptcy, and he had to return to his old profession as an actor, sometimes even directing plays and films.

As for Grégoire Glassmann, the Valenciennes player who testified, his testimony made club owners wary of him, and he had to leave France to play for a small club in Réunion. He eventually retired from football due to his age.

The team that suffered the most from the Marseille match-fixing scandal was, of course, Marseille itself. After the scandal, the star-studded lineup of Marseille was scattered:

Two-time African Footballer of the Year Abedi Pele went to Lyon, Marcel Desailly transferred to AC Milan, Rudi Völler returned to Germany, Lazio signed Bokšić, Di Meco and Barthez moved to Monaco, central defender Basile Boli joined Celtic, and the Italian giants Juventus signed Didier Deschamps, the captain of both the French national team and Marseille. Yugoslav star Dragan Stojković went to Japan...

The match-fixing scandal left Marseille in ruins, and by 2012, when Zhuang Mingge traveled through time, Marseille was just a strong Ligue 1 team, far from the glory of their four consecutive titles. The Ligue 1 also fell into a long period of silence, with the exodus of stars and internal team battles, a situation that did not improve even when the French national team won the World Cup and the European Cup.

Zhuang Mingge, who had experienced the "Calciopoli" scandal in the Italian Serie A, was highly concerned about Marseille's fate. He clearly remembered that the Serie A lost its appeal to top stars due to the 2006 "Calciopoli" scandal, and the reputation of Serie A teams was severely damaged.

Therefore, both for the public and private good, Zhuang Mingge was determined to do everything in his power to prevent the Serie A from experiencing that disaster. The best way to do this was to establish an anti-"black, gambling, and drugs" system in the league, similar to what David Stern did in the NBA, to eliminate all potential risks at the earliest stage.

Thus, Zhuang Mingge needed to have sufficient influence in the Italian Professional Football League.

How to gain more influence? Naturally, by making Fiorentina a European powerhouse.

How to become a powerhouse? That would depend on Zhuang Mingge's own abilities...