While attending the funeral of his mother, Alain Orsoni, former president of AC Ajaccio and Corsican nationalist figure, was shot dead in the village of Vero, in Corsica-du-Sud.
Ajaccian football has lost yet another one of its own. After the announcement of the death of Rolland Courbis this Monday morning, it is by Alain Orsoni which was revealed, in particular by BFMTV, at the end of the afternoon. The former president of the Ajaccio football club from 2008 to 2015 and Corsican nationalist, was shot dead this Monday, January 12 in Vero, near Ajaccio, while attending his mother’s funeral. The shooter is on the run, BFMTV learned from reliable sources. Ajaccio prosecutor Nicolas Septe opened an investigation into organized gang murder, entrusted to the police and the gendarmerie in co-responsibility.
Aged 71, this early nationalist activist had already been targeted by an assassination plan in 2008. His brother Guy was assassinated in 1983, the first name he then gave to his son, a figure in Corsican banditry.
President of AC Ajaccio from 2008 to 2015
Renowned for his political acumen and his cool, Alain Orsoni left Corsica in 1996, in the midst of a fratricidal war within the nationalist movement. He lived for 13 years in Florida then in Nicaragua, where he had activities in the gaming sector, and in Spain. Shortly after his return from exile, an assassination plan targeting him was foiled by the police during the summer of 2008. At the same time, he took over as president of the Athletic Club Ajaccien (ACA) football club from his friend Michel Moretti, a former nationalist who had just died.
Alain Orsoni was president of the Ajaccian club when the Blanc et Rouge moved up to Ligue 1 at the end of the 2010-2011 season. The Corsican club will remain in the highest sphere of the French championship for three seasons, narrowly managing to remain each time. But the ACA goes down to Ligue 2 for the year 2014-2015, while the GFCA, another club from Ajaccio, is promoted to Ligue 1 at the end of the season. Since then, the former club chaired by Alain Orsoni has played in Regional 2 after a heavy relegation this summer.
When Fabrizio Ravanelli coached the ACA
Under the presidency of Alain Orsoni, another significant event: the arrival of Fabrizio Ravanelli in 2013. The former Juventus center forward was then only the coach of the Veille Dame reserve team, but the ACA had bet on him to replace Albert Emon. Unfortunately, the Italian international did not shine with his coaching and barely five months later, he was fired after the seventh defeat, in twelve matches, on the ACA bench.
His Italian method, including the use of food supplements, which was criticized from the first weeks, did not appeal to Corsica and Fabrizio Ravanelli’s coaching career did not take off.
At the end of October, Alain Orsoni was also sanctioned with a four-year license ban by the FFF, after the federal disciplinary commission was seized for “transmission of false banking documents during his appearance before the DNCG appeal committee”, while the ACA was fighting for its sporting survival.
