Olympique de Marseille did not need that the day after its defeat against Rennes (2-1). His trainer, André Villas-Boas, is accused on Thursday of harshly attacking a journalist specializing in OM after the trip the day before in Brittany.
At the end of his post-match press conference, Villas-Boas approached this journalist and gave him “two unfriendly slaps on the shoulder”, indicates a witness to the scene in “La Provence” , from which the reporter came. “Thanks eh. Keep it up, I’ll catch you. If I have the chance to catch you … continue like that, it’s good, ”he would then have launched the former coach of Chelsea and Tottenham.
Ricardo Carvalho forced to separate them
Twenty minutes after the press conference, the dispute continued in the parking lot of the stadium, where OM had just lost 2-1 against Rennes. According to another witness to the scene, Villas-Boas approached the journalist from La Provence until the two men “found themselves almost face to face” and “insulted him in Portuguese”. Ricardo Carvalho, Villas-Boas’ deputy, then intervened to separate the two men.
But how did we come to this? At first glance, Villas-Boas tasted very little of the journalist’s observations. The Portuguese technician had already mentioned his articles twice at a press conference, after an inventory, in particular on his poor results in the Champions League since the start of his career. “The record of the Portuguese coach in the Champions League does not make you dream,” could we read in the introduction. Wednesday morning, La Provence had published a post on this subject.
“The verbal reproaches have taken an unacceptable turn”
Thursday, La Provence denounced on its website “an intolerable attitude” and let it be known that the UJSF, the union of sports journalists, had been seized of the case.
For its part, the UJSF “strongly condemned the attitude” of the Marseille coach, affirming “unreservedly” his support for the journalist, in a press release published at the end of the afternoon. “In the space of 8 days, the verbal reproaches of the Portuguese technician took an unacceptable turn”, wrote the union, which “will follow with particular attention the evolution of this file”.
Contacted by AFP, OM declined to comment at this stage. André Villas-Boas’s next press conference is scheduled for Friday at the Commanderie training center.
