Olympique Marseille supremo Pablo Longoria will appear before a French football league disciplinary panel on Wednesday facing a possible 12-game ban for attacking the officiating during Marseille's 3-0 loss at Auxerre on Saturday.
Longoria railed at the performance of referee Jérémy Stinat who rejected Marseille appeals for a penalty and dismissed Marseille defender Derek Cornelius for two bookable offences.
"Let Pablo Longoria tell it like it is: this is real corruption!" said the 39-year-old Spaniard after the Ligue 1 clash.
Before Saturday's game at the Stade Abbé-Deschamps, Marseille officials had openly expressed their concern over Stinat's appointment as the main referee for the match.
The 46-year-old former footballer had been the fourth official in the Coupe de France tie against Lille where Marseille's director of football Medhi Benatia was suspended for three months for his behaviour towards Stinat.
On Wednesday, Fabrizio Ravanelli, Longoria's sporting advisor, will also come under scrutiny for branding Stinat's performance at Auxerre as scandalous.
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Punishment
The 56-year-old Italian's sanction is likely to be lighter.
If the watchdogs decide "excessive or inappropriate behaviour", they can impose a three-match suspension. "Offensive behaviour" can lead to a four-match ban.
"Rude or insulting behaviour" could result in a suspension of up to 12 matches, and "intimidating or threatening behaviour" could be punished by a six-month ban.
Longoria's comments brought immediate condemnation from Antony Gautier, the referees' boss at the French Football Federation as well as the outfit's top executive Philippe Diallo.
"Calling into question the integrity of our referees is defamatory, unacceptable and reprehensible," he said.
On Sunday , Safe, the union for officials operating in the top four divisions, said its members would sue for defamation.
On Monday, Longoria apologised for his outburst. "I would like to say that there is no corruption in French football," he said in an interview with the French news agency AFP.
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Form
"The form wasn't appropriate and I regret using that word."
Longoria, who took over as president at Marseille in 2021, added: "I'm very self-critical, and I can't accept this type of image. A club president can't behave like that. Nothing justifies the form and I'm not happy with myself.
"Everyone has explained to me the meaning of the word corruption in French, because in Spanish it has a broader meaning. Mind you, that doesn't justify anything. But I've never in my life thought about something like exchanging money or financial transactions, and I'd never allow myself to do that."
The loss at Auxerre - Marseille's fifth of the season - left them 10 points adrift of pacesetters Paris Saint-Germain who capitalised on the defeat with a 3-2 victory at Lyon on Sunday night to surge 13 points clear with 11 games remaining. The win allowed Auxerre to climb to 11th in Ligue 1 with 28 points afer 23 games.
(With newswires)
