Pape Diouf

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Mababa Diouf, known as Papa Diouf^[1] or Pape Diouf, (18 December 1951-31 March 2020), is a Franco-Senegalese football personality who was sports journalist, agent for football players, and later president of Olympique de Marseille from 2005 to 2009.

A descendant of a Senegalese military family, Pape Diouf arrived in France at the age of 18 and started after studying political science in the profession of sports journalism with the communist newspaper La Marseillaise in his football column and columnist of Marseille sports life including Olympique de Marseille during the 1970s and 1980s. At the end of the 1990s, he joined the daily Le Sport, which was supposed to compete with L'Équipe, but ultimately failed.

Linked to many people in football, he then became a agent for several players in the 1990s until 2004. That year, he joined the Olympique de Marseille club as general manager then chairman of the executive board before being appointed president in 2005, being the first, and only since, black president of a French professional club. He remained four years in this post before being disembarked in 2009 following internal disagreements. Although under his presidency the club did not win a trophy, it allowed him to remain in the top 5 of the French Championship standings and to regain stability despite a financially difficult period. He later took part in the creation of a journalism school in Marseille and in conferences on football and shared his life between France and Senegal. He died in Dakar at the age of 68, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Pape Diouf was born in Abéché in Chad, then still a French colony, where his military father, Demba Diouf,^[2] of Senegalese origin, standard bearer of the Free French and Gaullist Forces, was responsible for the garage of the French army in Fort-Lamy (today N'Djamena). His mother's name is Aminata, second wife of his polygamous father and he comes from a family of eight children. His first name Mababa is in tribute to his grandfather who in diminutive becomes Papa or Pape. When he was six months old, his parents returned to Senegal, the country of his ethnically Serer and Muslim^[3] family. He lived with his uncle Jean Paul, by African tradition, in Richard Toll (the sugar bastion of Senegal), then in Mauritania where he completed his schooling for six to ten years and then returned to Dakar for his entry into CM1. He spent two years at the Saint-Michel then at the Sacré-Cœur middle school, in the same Catholic school group. At the age of 17, his father decided to send him to Marseille at the end of his second year to take his baccalaureate.

Sport journalist[]

Pape Diouf arrived in Marseille at the age of 18, with a paternal injunction to become a soldier like his father who fought for France during World War II, but Pape Diouf did not want to, and decides to live according to his choices. At the same time as his studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Aix-en-Provence,^[4] he finally enters the PTT,^[5] and then abandoned his studies. There he met Tony Salvatori, several times champion of France and international spearfishing, employee like him of the post, who will make him enter as a freelance writer for the communist newspaper La Marseillaise. Shortly after, he was hired full time, with the mission of "covering" the news of the Olympique de Marseille and twelve years after entering the newspaper, he joins the national sports daily Le Sport, launched by Xavier Couture, but the adventure comes to an end because the daily files for bankruptcy.

Football agent[]

Following this disappointment, Pape Diouf organized jubilees for players in Africa (Boubacar Sarr, Eusébio). From there came the idea of becoming a agent for players. His first players under contract are Basile Boli and Joseph-Antoine Bell, both playing at Olympique de Marseille. Later, his clients will include Marcel Desailly, Jean-Michel Ferri, Grégory Coupet, Sylvain Armand, Laurent Robert, Roger Boli, Abedi Pelé, David Sommeil, Marc-Vivien Foé, Frédéric Kanouté, Noureddine Naybet, Didier Drogba, William Gallas or Samir Nasri (since the age of 13).

Club manager[]

In 2004, Pape Diouf joined Olympique de Marseille as general manager of the club, in charge of sports affairs. After the departure of Christophe Bouchet in the fall of 2004, he was appointed chairman of the management board of Olympique de Marseille by the club's supervisory board, within a triumvirate also made up of Vivian Corzani for administration and Philippe Meurice for finances. In 2005, he became president of Olympique de Marseille under the influence of the majority shareholder, Robert Louis-Dreyfus.

In 2006, he was at the origin of a controversial decision to field an Olympique de Marseille bis team against Paris Saint-Germain on behalf of the 30th day of the Ligue 1 championship. He had indeed refused to send the team of holders, arguing the non-compliance by the security services of the Paris Saint-Germain of the security standards concerning the reception of Marseille fans at the Parc des Princes. This decision drew wrath from the French public, the Professional Football League and the exclusive broadcaster of the championship, Canal+, but it also allowed him to form the sacred union around him among the Olympian supporters. The match ended with an unexpected 0-0 after a closed match.

Under his presidency, Olympique de Marseille progressed steadily in the French hierarchy (5th in 2005–2006, then 2nd in 2006–2007, 3rd in 2007–2008, and 2nd in 2008–2009), qualifying very regularly in the League of Champions. He also reached the final of the Coupe de France twice in a row (lost in 2006 against Paris Saint-Germain and in 2007 against FC Sochaux-Montbéliard).

Finally, he remains to this day the only black leader of a club playing in the first division throughout Europe. “I am the only black president of a club in Europe. It is a painful observation, like European and, above all, French society, which excludes ethnic minorities.” Pape Diouf delivers a rather disillusioned diagnosis of French integration.

Due to repeated absences from the Olympique de Marseille supervisory board as well as conflicts with the president of this board, , Robert Louis-Dreyfus decides to separate from Pape Diouf on June 17, 2009 after more than four years of presidency.

He can be considered as one of the major players in the renewal of Olympique de Marseille at the end of the 2000s, having brought back and then maintained the club for three years in the Champions League.

He was indicted in 2016 for abuse of corporate assets and criminal association in a case related to the transfers of certain players. His indictment was quashed and he was placed under the status of assisted witness in 2018.

After OM[]

Pape Diouf is from 2010, alongside Jean-Pierre Foucault, shareholder of the European Communication School and the European Institute of Journalism in Marseille. In an interview in April 2011, he declared that he did not particularly reject the world of football despite his ouster from the Olympique de Marseille, and added that football was no more corrupt than the world of politics, health or cinema. In 2012, he was named Knight of the Legion of Honour by president François Hollande. The badges were presented to him by the President of the Republic on October 9, 2013, during a collective ceremony.

At the end of 2013, he was approached to lead a list during the 2014 municipal elections in Marseille. Courted by the PS and EELV, he finally took the head of the “Change la donne” list made up of members of the “Sursaut”, a collective comprising environmental dissidents and associations, and personalities from civil society. In this context, he directed a clip, Changer la donne, in which he expressed his ideas and his dissatisfaction with the political and social situation in Marseille. Its lists end in fifth position (overall results in Marseille), with 5.63% of the vote.

Sports betting ambassador[]

From 2011, following the opening of the online betting market in France, Pape Diouf also worked alongside Bernard Laporte and for L'Officiel des Paris en ligne (OPL) as an expert on sports betting for football, with a regular sports column on the sport and predictions on the matches.

Death[]

After contracting COVID-19, Pape Diouf was hospitalized in Dakar, Senegal, at the Fann hospital, specializing in infectious and tropical diseases and placed on respiratory assistance. His condition deteriorated, preventing his planned transfer by medical plane to Nice. He died on the evening of March 31, 2020 at the age of 68 and was buried the next day in the Muslim cemetery of Yoff.

Titles[]

• Knight of the Legion of Honour, 13 July 2012.

Works[]

• De but en blanc, Éditions Hachette Littératures, (2009).
• C'est bien plus qu'un jeu, Éditions Grasset, (2013).

References[]

• (in French) Sport fr (retrieved : 1 May 2012)