It’s a phrase from Patrice de Peretti, iconic supporter of Olympique de Marseille, who died in 2000, which inspired the name of the documentary produced by journalist Philippe Pujol. Electrifying the supporters of the Stade-Vélodrome, the man nicknamed “Dépé” was known for experiencing OM matches, shirtless even in winter, looking towards the stands. “Why are your backs to the lawn? », we asked him. “I look at the match in the eyes of mine,” he replied.
Albert Londres Prize in 2014 for a series of articles on the “shit districts” of the city of Marseille, and author of the book La Fabrique du monster (Le Seuil, 2015), Philippe Pujol continues his x-ray of the Marseille city, in s interesting this time to the supporters of his football team.
Like “Dépé”, the journalist turned his back on the lawn. Under his camera, the sporting aspect seems secondary. Apart from a brief appearance by Jean-Pierre Papin, former club striker, no football player is filmed there. A Marseille supporter even claims: “OM is not the football team. OM is us. »
Tasty moments of exchange
With assumed tenderness, the former news reporter for the regional daily La Marseillaise handed the microphone to around fifteen supporters, whom he followed during the 2022-2023 season of the French football championship. We discover them in their own juice: in a café, at work, at home. A composite community, like the city, which makes Olympique de Marseille a permanent subject of conversation. At the racecourse, we talk less about horse racing than about the football match the day before. In a combat sports club, the club’s values ??provide material for a coach’s motivational speech. “I want you to have the grinta! “, he thunders to his students, using the Italian word for being stupid.
Moments of tasty exchanges give a glimpse of the importance that OM has in the lives of these people. Preparing a dish of stuffed squid, a supporter sees in the red of the simmering sauce a reminder of the color of the smoke bombs at the Stade-Vélodrome. During a demonstration, trade unionists from the CGT Energie sing the supporter song: “To arms”. A supporter goes to work in a 2CV repainted in the club’s white and sky blue colors.
Behind the living testimonies and the panoramic maps of the city, a more political face of this popular fervor also emerges. The rivalry between Paris Saint-Germain and the club from the Marseille city, renamed “the city without a name” in 1794 by the Jacobins, is, in the eyes of supporters, less sporting than political. “The political and economic power that we don’t have, we dream of in OM,” analyzes a supporter from the stands. No matter the result of the match, standing together is a way of building society: “Even if we lose tonight, at least we will have eaten stuffed squid,” jokes a Marseille supporter.
