IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES. Death of Bernard Tapie: the Velodrome de Marseille paid a striking tribute to the “Boss” – LaDepeche.fr

More than an hour before the opening of the doors of the Vélodrome stadium, where a fiery chapel is planned in tribute to Bernard Tapie, who died of cancer on Sunday, several hundred OM supporters were already gathered Thursday afternoon for a final farewell to the “boss”. On the edge of the steps leading to the stadium, facing Boulevard Michelet, a huge black and white portrait of the ex-president of Olympique de Marseille (1986-1994) was drawn, with a caption: “Rest in peace the boss, you will be forever in our hearts “.

On the first landing of the stairs, a large photo, also black and white, installed since Monday morning by the club: Bernard Tapie, in a suit and tie, brandishing a soccer ball. Next to it, a few roses and a wreath of flowers, offered by the Winners, one of OM’s seven supporters’ clubs.

“Supporter of OM and anti-Parisian”, Micheline Duval, 61, member of the Winners and housekeeper, dressed in the colors of the club from head to toe, anti-Covid mask included, “came to pay homage to the only Parisian recognized by the Marseillais, who brought them to the top, “with the 1993 Champions League, the only one ever won by French football.

“The tribute we pay him is nothing compared to what he deserves. We should not talk about the past,” she says, evacuating the legal setbacks of the ex-man of business: “He is a man with a big heart, we must stop always going back on his convictions, he was condemned out of jealousy and sent to prison because he embarrassed him”.

At 3.30 p.m., an hour and a half before the scheduled opening of the stadium itself, a blue and white tide was already stretching out in a long queue to go and sign the guest books made available by the club in a salon.

But they mostly came for the ceremony scheduled in the stadium, from 5:45 pm exactly. Installed in the Jean-Bouin stand, the thousands of Marseille fans expected were able to review the first half of the 1993 final against AC Milan, until the famous header from Basile Boli in the 44th minute.

At 6.30 p.m., the coffin of the “boss” arrived on the lawn. Friday, it will be the turn of the funeral, still in Marseille. After a mass at 11 a.m. at the Major, the ex-businessman will be buried in the Mazargues cemetery, in the southern districts of the city.