Jacques-Henri Eyraud communicates with fans on Viber
Below is a recap of President Jaques-Henri Eyraud's Viber chat yesterday with the Olympique de Marseille community.
Eloi Lebref's question: Hello Mr. Eyraud, what do you think are the areas in which OM has made the most progress since your arrival? And where is there the greatest room for improvement? Thank you for the work done for the club!
Jacques-Henri Eyraud:
"Thank you for your question. First of all, I would say sporting performance, we have put together a staff, a team, a good combination of experienced players and young talents, which performed well last season. It will be difficult to do better, but that is our goal.
The second important pillar for us is the experience we offer to our supporters both inside and outside the stadium. At the moment in the stadium, there has been no noticeable change. The stadium is not yet our home, we will take control in a few weeks and we can start working on improvements and continue to invest and accelerate our investments in this beautiful Orange Velodrome.
The third pillar of our project is the club, OM in the city. I think that we have also made good progress, we are increasingly present with the associations, on education, reintegration, professional integration, the promotion of sport among young people. And we want to be a little more in all that is art form, culture.
Our last pillar is our financial sustainability, we keep it at all times in the back of our minds, but obviously given the state of the club at the start we are still in a heavy investment phase, which will weigh on our balances but we know we are here for the long term. We will continue to invest heavily in the coming years.
Question from Mahmoud Oubraham: Good morning, Mr. President. What is the business model of the McCourt project? Added value on the players (take youngsters, make them progress and sellable? Or added value on the club (strong investment to install the club among the best in Europe before possible resale)? Thank you for what you have already done.
Jacques-Henri Eyraud:
"A sale is definitely not relevant. You will believe me, or not, we have NEVER broached this subject with Frank. On the other hand, economic and financial sustainability is one of our major objectives and for this we must pass a significant investment phase. This is true in all areas and especially for training. I would like to have 5 players from our academy in the starting eleven in 5 years ... The operation of the stadium will also be a strong element of value creation. We really have a lot of projects. It will be a turning point. "
Question from Anthony based in Los Angeles: As president of the Los Angeles fan club, I would like to know what you think about the OM Nation project. And I wanted to know if you can tell us about the first results of OM Nation. I would also like to tell you that we are waiting for you here in Los Angeles, you are welcome and go OM!
Jacques-Henri Eyraud:
"I promise to meet you in LA. I do it whenever I can, when traveling abroad. We already have 9 fan clubs around the world and we have not stopped talking about the demand. For OM Nation, our goal is to reward our best supporters with privileged access to the stadium and our content. We need to improve, but here we have a lot of ideas to bring us closer to you. My worst experience since my arrival was this closed game against Frankfurt. You have to live it to understand a little better, how fans are the basis of everything. And we must also treat those who do not have the chance to come to the stadium - because they like OM just as much as the others! More than 5,000 supporters have already joined us as part of the OM Nation program. "
Question from ShavinzCS: Hello Jacques-Henri! What can you say about Rudi Garcia's extension? We achieved the goals last season while still suffering big defeats, I hope that this season we will achieve our goals too, but we still have suffered early season defeats that are hard to swallow. Thank you ! Go OM!
Jacques-Henri Eyraud:
"Hello ShavinzCS. Defeats hurt but they are part of the sport. In defeat, we must first look at the attitude of players before focusing on the result. To win a match in professional sports, it must be a good performance. As for the victories, the one against Monaco was not bad, I think. Of course we play every game to win because we are OM. It's the beginning of the season, and in the spring for the final sprint, that's where you have to be very strong. With Rudi at the helm, of course! "
