Former LA Dodgers owner Frank McCourt buys Marseille
ByReuters
Updated 29/08/2016 at 15:54 GMT
Frank McCourt, the former owner of U.S. baseball team the L.A. Dodgers, has entered exclusive negotiations to buy French Ligue 1 club Olympic Marseille - OM, as they're affectionately known - vowing to restore the team to its former glory.
Marseille's Florian Thauvin celebrates after scoring a goal
Image credit: Eurosport
Billionaire businesswoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, the Russian-born chairwoman of Louis Dreyfus Commodities trading house, said in April that she was looking for a buyer for Marseille.
"Margarita and I just executed a contract for us to buy l'OM, the greatest football cub in the French league and one of the best in the world," McCourt told a news conference alongside Louis-Dreyfus and Marseille mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin.
"I'm very excited about making Marseille a champion again,"
The deal is due to be completed by the end of the year, the two sides said. RMC Sport reported that the club had been sold for 40 million euros ($44.68 million).
Louis-Dreyfus took control of Marseille after the death of her husband Robert in 2009, but despite investing tens of millions of euros in recent years, they have struggled and finished 13th in Ligue 1 last season.
Marseille, who have French soccer's biggest fan base, won the last of their nine league titles in 2010.
With Qatari investors buying arch-rivals Paris St Germain as well as Russian and Chinese investors ploughing funds into Nice, Monaco and Lyon, they have struggled to attract top players and financial investment to take the club forward.
McCourt, who sold the L.A. Dodgers in 2012 for $2 billion, said he aimed to bring his experience in sports' ownership to turn the club's fortunes around.
"We have a project that we will build together," he said. "We will build a championship calibre team that can compete year-in and year-out for the championship," McCourt said.
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