Threatened by the leaders of supporter groups, Pablo Longoria still chose to remain president of Olympique de Marseille. While he preferred to resign, Marcelino did not want to cast stones at his fellow Spaniard.

« When Pablo decided to continue, three or four days had passed, it was not the next day. We had already signed the documents and several members of my staff had already left. We had no possibility of come back, especially because, in this atmosphere of threats, even if I’m not afraid, you don’t know what the next gang will be. Everything that was Pablo or close to Pablo, we wanted to completely eradicate him, through “Threats generate fear, and that is not acceptable,” the former Marseille coach first indicated in L’Equipe.

« I don’t know if I’m the only one or not. When the decision is made. It’s not that we wanted to leave, it’s that the situation was untenable. You can’t accept threats as something normal . So, we made this decision. Then, if Pablo, Pedro (Iriondo, the strategic director), Stphane (Tessier, the administrative and financial director) or Javier (Ribalta, the (Site notre bureau spécialisé) director) change their mind, in Circumstances that I don’t know. There are everyone’s responsibilities, the fact of not leaving the club without leadership, in a period where matches come one after another with a competition in progress, all this changed the initial decision. I respect all of this,” Marcelino continued.