Its pretty easy to give the budget airlines of this world a difficult time especially for those who prefer the supposed comforts of a British Airways or an Air France flight as opposed to Ryanair, Globespan or Easyjet.   For the intrepid football fan though budget airlines have been a god send and opened up a sphere of travel and opportunity to thousands; an opportunity that once was only the preserve of a minority.   Take the example of a hypothetical Champions League clash between Schalke 04 and Arsenal

Now VIF is not embarking on an advertising campaign for Ireland's finest 'Ryanair' here (despite the fact that its writers are amongst its best customers) but what we are saying is that they get a hard time and to be fair it is pretty un-justified particularly if you are a football fan.    Yes, we acknowledge that no-frills airlines are not everyones cup of tea but the fact is that most football fans are not in the dislikable caviar and champagne football fan brigade anyway and British Airways and its likes are strictly off limits to the majority of real football fans.  You are more likely to get a re-sealable bag of minstrels on a Ryanair flight than you are a prawn sandwich.   Basically if you want to stand on a terrace at a German Bundesliga game on a saturday afternoon why would you feel the need to take an executive jet to get there.   It doesn't matter if now and again you have to sleep in Stansted or Frankfurt Hahn, it is being at the game at a budget price that matters.  

Our match report here deals with Marseille.   The streets and squares are not paved with gold and nor are its resident team Olympique Marseille blessed these days with riches on the field that they once had during the days of Bernard Tapie.   When once the likes of Jean-Pierre Papin, Cantona, Amoros and Waddle would drive Marseille to European Cup finals and later a European Cup success in 1993 against Milan, recent times have seen consistant Champions league qualificaton but they have also seen Marseille replaced at the top of French Football by Lyon.  Unsurprisingly, Lyon's domination of domestic football has meant that Marseille have not won any sort of trophy since that 1993 victory. Whilst not in decline and despite a relegation due to financial irregularities, a number of appearances in the UEFA cup final in 1999 and 2004 have brought hope yet ultimatly failed to provide its legions of supporters with the silverware its craves.    

Located on the Mediterranean Sea on a chalky scorched yet attractive coastline with a nunber of surrounding islands, Marseille alongside neighbouring Nice is one of France's largest ports.   Regular ferries to Algeria, Morocco, Corsica and Tunisia disembark from the city a fact that hints towards the rich cultural diversity that lives and breathes, not always healthily, in the city.   

Sweeping aside unfair accusations of wide spread poverty and lawlessness reported and mentioned in guide books, what we saw was a far from different mix.   Aside from a few stray dogs and the occasional unfortunate homeless man outside the train station the scene we witnessed was something different from the picture painted in guide books as it is was a fast paced city with similar people who were friendly, spoke English and were polite.   There was no speeding cars as made famous by Taxi, no pick pockets at night and the transport both metro and tram was modern, efficient, on time and clean.   Wider than that evidence available to our eyes, the city of Marseille has also developed a modern and advanced economy based on high technology manufacturing, oil refining and service sector employment.   Shopping in the city meanwhile offers both style Boutique, wide ranging cafe and restaurant culture and a selection of retail stores such as Virgin megastore, H&M and Xara familiar to us all in the UK.    In recent decades it has been said that Le Pen's National Front party has gained ground or at least carved support amongst Marseille people but it is hard to see any evidence of this at least at ground level.  On the contrary all that we witnessed politically were a wide range of posters of a lefter leaning pointing towards a communistic rather than fascistic city scape.   

Our flight arrived at the new MP2 Marseille Provence airport on the Friday evening.   Immediately the L'OM club motto 'Droit au But' was visable even without stepping outside the airport building.   The short shuttle bus coach system operating from the airport terminal took us to St.Charles railway station and not two minutes later our hotel Vertigo.   The match in focus here took place on the Saturday evening at 19:00 with the national media claiming surprisingly that the Nancy Lorraine v PSG game on the sunday evening was the game of the weekend rather than Marseille v Caen.   With the French league running from late July to early May games in France normally take place on a Saturday evening and reflecting the ever increasing visual media age football on television in France is popular.    One glance on the Friday evening at a copy of the sport listings in FranceFootball magazine showed games on a number of channels.  These included Canal+, Foot+, Sport+, I-Tele, L'Equipe TV, Ma Chaine Sport and RTL 9 and within that range of channels fans in France can see league games from around Europe, UEFA cup, Argentinian and Japanese football.   Interestingly it is said that Canal Plus still rules the roost in France via subscription channnels and with the Nancy-PSG game being deemed game of the week in France it is no coincidence that that was the game shown live via subscription on the sunday evening.   

Whilst we here in the UK often sit down on a Saturday night to watch Linekar, Hanson et al on Match of the Day France themselves has its own version.  And, believe it or not in the best spirit of an Allo Allo episode, it is called Match of Ze Day and goes out at 10.20 on Canal+.  Its seems hard to believe but its true.  You can almost picture a French Alan Hanson lookalike muttering on about Ze Defensive being l'e-shocking.  Later on viewers also have the opportunity to watch the round-up Jour de Foot programme on the same evening.   MOTD2 with Adrian Chiles is staple sunday night viewing on BBC2 in the UK but in France they match up to that with the highly analytical and established L'Equipe du Dimanche programme at 11pm on Canal+.  

In terms of the written press and football writing one of the first things we did was to wonder into a department book store in central Marseille.  The pioneering  France Football magazine features weekly colour features and reporting from the league system in France from Ligue I reports to scores and classment from the minor Regionaux leagues.  These stats provided scores from games as far and wide as Brittany to Polynesia and New Caledonia.  As well detailed information about scores, attendences and issues pertaining to television, finance and marketing in football player focuses are also explored.

The magazine despite its depth and quality also boasts midweek and weekend editions as well as an informative and interactive website by the same name.  Also on the selves were copies of magazines directed towards younger fans as well as monthly titles dedicated to African football and individual club sides.   Specifically with respect to FranceFootball it is hard to see anything on a weekly basis in the UK that matches up to France Football.  World Soccer and FourFour Two produced monthly provide quality reading but on a weekly basis its the newspaper press in the UK that can provide statistic hungry fans with the scores.  In terms of books what the French bookshelves lacked in terms of fan culture books they made up for in terms of autobiographies of former and current players.  Titles dedicated to the World Cup win of 1998 also dominated.   On one final note, one book dedicated to current French national team coach Raymond Domanech showed images and photos of him during his playing career.  Complete with handle bar moustache they are worth looking out if only for comedy value.

The common view, or at least until Setanta started showing French Football,  was that to the average French fan partisanship and fanaticism was as alien to the French game as cheap entry prices are today to the Premiership.   But whilst you may have to pay an arm and a leg to see football in England's top leagues, the truth about the former is not as clear cut as perceptions suggest.   As an older generation of supporters have moved on or at least moved onto the VIP and sideline stands a  noticably younger audience has appeared behind goal areas serving to orchestrate a passion for teams more commonly seen in Italy and Germany.    Crowd violence is also not unknown with Lens fans at the end of the previous league season going on the rampage with the club relegation to Ligue 2.   Meanwhile games between St.Etienne, PSG and Marseille oftem see troubles and more importantly genuine regular outbreaks of mass fan culture, flags and foreworks.

Marseille against Caen on paper may not seem as attractive as a clash between the modern heavyweights of Lyon and PSG but any game at the Stade Velodrome offers a glimpse of what French football can offer in terms of passion.  We took the metro line 2 to the stadium and got off at the Rond Pont du Prado a few stops from the centre and turned left and the Velodrome was right in front of us.   Awash an hour before kick off with fans,  thoughts of French fine dining and cuisine were as far from the smells in the air as could be.   Instead what was visable were rows of kebab sellers, hot dog stands and fans drinking beer and wine.  That exploded another myth in that the French clearly do binge drink alcohol and eat junk food or at least they do before the match.   Crowds of  fans gathered outside various areas of the stadia as flag and scarf sellers sold merchandise at 5 euros at time.  Most visably evident were crowds of fans wearing Virage-Sud orange hooded tops and this of course brings us onto another chapter in our story.

The Virage Sud area of the Stade Velodrome, where these fans would stand, is the most passionate area in this hot bed of football.    As with the Virage Nord at the other end of the stadia, the South Curve is controlled by supporter's associations with the Commando Ultras 1984 and the South WinnersClub Central des Supporteurs filling the remaining sections of the end. The area of the ground is known for its impressive display of banners and colours at the start of the game as a mixture of orange and the more familiar mix of sky blue and white create impressive backing for the team.  The groups on the south stand strive to make more noise than the Virage Nord with each end of the ground chanting concurrent songs back and forth.     At the end where the players run out under the city flag the North Curve is home to the Yankee Nord Marseille, Fanatics, and Dodgers supporters associations all of whom had banners visable on the stand.   It was said to VIF before the game that the Virage Nord is known for being the most intense end of the ground but this would not appear to be the case during this game.  

The Sud had more colour with a mix of orange, sky blue and white as well as more flags and flares being set off.   The Nord end meanwhile embarked upon scarf raising ala The Kop at Anfield but aside from some Algerian flags being waved most of the noise, but not all, came from the Virage Sud.  Outside the stadia it was the Virage Sud that seemed to rule the roost with hardly any visable reminders of the Nord end.   Also, a point of note as if by way to explode a myth doing the rounds that tickets are not available for the Nord and Sud ends to visitors to the Velodrome.   VIF already had tickets for the Tribune Ganay Laterale Sud area of the ground adjacent to the Virage Sud end.  However, outside the stadia a large number of people approached with respect to offering tickets for entrance to the Sud end.   Yes, this may point to the fact that members of groups buy all the tickets for these ends at the start of each season and sell them on predominantly to their members.   However, if you are determined to stand amongst them it is easily done as the tickets are available if you want one.  A little French goes a long way if you are determined to get on the Virage Sud.   Even if you have no phrase book its possible.

Outside the stadia adjacent to the ground was the Virage Sud fan store which had on sale a great deal of merchandise to fans.  All of the takings that the store made is used to enhance the groups displays and creativity.   Amongst the items on sale included a wide range of stickers, quality scarves, hooded tops and t-shirts all of which had the common themes of L'OM colours or anti-PSG slogans and imagery.  The shop worker himself was a Virage Sud regular who had a large scale knowledge of fan culture in every corner of Europe.  We were made welcome in the store and made welcome to return after the game to meet another Virage Sud regular and certainly merchandise was available to anyone requesting it.

As we entered the ground the Velodrome fills up slowly rather than quickly if only that was the case against Caen.   Fans go through a number of checks via matchday stewards and we can only presume that the flares set off regularly on the Virage Sud diring the game are either left in an area within the ground of smuggled in against the will of security.    A free match day programme was available to every fan on entering the ground and the concrete concourse areas.     The teams themselves came out to Van Halens 'Jump' and that was the trigger for the Virage Sud lower to raise a number of flags displaying CU84 and a massive Fred Perry logo.   The upper meanwhile saw orange flags being hoisted with the noise levels being audibly louder than the lower half.   A number of smaller groups either side were also visable each distinct yet unified in support for Marseille.  With Caen playing good football during the season so far and lying in fifth place, it did not take long for Marseille to take the lead after only 3 minutes through a swerving shot by Ben Arfa.   This was the cue for Marseille fans in the Virage Sud to surge forward and climb the fence seperating the end from the goal areas.  Almost immediatly though Marseille were on the back foot and a mistake by the new French national team keeper Mandanda allowed a Caen equalizer.  The travelling support from Caen, numbering less than 100, proceeded to celebrate the goal by gesticulating and waving banners at the Virage Nord ends.   It may not seem much of a travelling support but the proceeding league match at the Velodrome witnessed a sparse travelling support of even less from neighbouring Monaco and that, taken together with the fact that Caen in Normandy lies nearer to Newcastle than Marseille, makes the travelling support impressive.  As well as being visable in Marseille city centre during the afternoon proceeding the game, inside the ground they did there best to raise blue and red two stick banners high for the whole ninety minutes.  

The second half again started with Marseille struggling to enforce home superiority on Caen.  Despite an adundance of attacking talent from Nianng, Kone and Zendon it was Caen who continued to threaten Olympique Marseille who now defended the Virage Nord end.  Meanwhile at the Virage Sud end the Caen keeper Plante had to defend himself from an avalanche of apples and bottles being thrown from the Virage Sud.  All of this coming at a time when the referee was being given serious abuse from almost every area of the stadia including in the Jean Bouin stand area.  Marseille eventually managed to win the game via a Mamadou Nianng header midway through the second half and that was that aside from more contraversial refereeing by way of  red card for a Marseille player.  As he walked off the pitch the Caen keeper approached the Virage Nord end to applaud the fans.  The fact he had not done this at the Virage Sud can leave you guessing as to whom treated him better during the game.

Having not visited other grounds yet in France outwith PSG and the Stade De France its hard to see how any other ground in France outwith a home PSG game that can express the same passion that a Marseille match does.   Fans of Lyon, Lens and St.Etienne may lay claim to express passion and enthusiam for a team in equal measure but the sheer size of the Velodrome and the wide sweeping ends of 14,000 people either end of the ground produces an effect hard to be matched anywhere.   St.Etienne and Lyon hardcore fans seem to occupy only one end of there respective grounds whilst on the other hand Olympique Marseille fans occupying both ends of the ground for almost every game expressing the same enthusiam no matter the opposition.  

Another point of note is that Marseille is clearly a football mad city like no other in France.  In Paris you are as likely to see an Arsenal shirt as a PSG one, and you are lucky to see the Paris St.Germain logo anywhere in Paris outwith the stadia or club city shop boutiques.   In Marseille things seem completely different with almost every third person walking around with either a Marseille shirt or tracksuit.   Even the city hop-on-hop-off bus tour made reference at various stages to the club and its traditions to the fabric of the city and the Port area.   Moreover, the Vieux Port area had an abundance of cafes all displaying L'OM badge and framed shirts.  

The win against Caen safe in the bag as of Saturday evening, Sunday evening saw the Nancy against PSG match go out live on Canal+ and its was the turn of Marseille fans to stand outside bars avidly watching on like a child outside a sweet shop as hated rivals PSG played to a subscription only audiance.

With a unique stadium with open high banking stands as well as a team full of home grown players, African stars and French internationals, Marseille as a destination offers visitors a great football experience.   Very few places get top marks all round for fanaticism, colour, passion  and originality but the Velodrome provides all these and more.     But its not just at the ground that you get a feel for Olympique Marseille as just one walk around the streets of Marseille whether at the Vieux Port or the St. Charles station will leave any visitor to this city in no doubt as to the importance of the game to the city's culture and heritage.   Marseille's evident ethnic divisions and differences would appear to be non-existant with respect to all things L'OM as unity reigns. 

By Editor