“Remember, it’s not a lie if you believe it,” George Costanza once said to Jerry Seinfeld. That timeless remark is very relevant to factions of Marseille supporters who keep fondly remembering Bernard Tapie’s era as president. On paper, that was the most successful French team ever. They won four league titles in a row between 1989 and 1992 and went on to play in two European Cup finals, collecting the first ever international silverware for their country in the 1993 defeat of Milan in Munich, thanks to Basile Boli’s historic header. Many French southerners would like to believe those were times of great success, thus feeling a nostalgic pinch in their hearts when thinking of it. Only it wasn’t real. Tapie’s Marseille was a lie, and you can only hail it if you refuse to acknowledge the facts
