Celtic’s Europa League opponents considered withdrawing from Europe amid financial concerns | OneFootball

Celtic’s Europa League opponents Marseille reportedly considered withdrawing from European competition altogether during the summer amid significant financial concerns.

Celtic Park ahead of Europa League game vs Braga,

The French giants are due to visit Celtic Park on January 21 in the penultimate fixture of the Hoops’ league-phase campaign, but their participation was apparently far from guaranteed.

According to L’Équipe, Marseille held discussions over whether competing in the Europa League was worth the additional financial strain after missing out on Champions League qualification.

The report claims withdrawing from the Europa League was considered before Marseille eventually decided to take their place. However, had they dropped into the Conference League, the club were reportedly prepared to pull out entirely.

Their deliberations came against a difficult financial backdrop. UEFA fined Marseille €6million after the club failed to meet the final target of a previous settlement agreement, while restrictions were also imposed on registering players for European competition.

Marseille were handed a further €4m fine for breaching UEFA’s squad cost rule and have also been warned that another failure to meet the required financial target could result in exclusion from the next UEFA competition they qualify for during the following three seasons.

Their financial situation contributed to a difficult summer, with Mason Greenwood, Facundo Medina and Geronimo Rulli departing and no new signings registered.

Results have also proved challenging under Bruno Genesio. A 4-0 opening victory over Strasbourg was followed by defeats against Monaco, Paris FC and Rennes, leaving Marseille with just three points from their opening four Ligue 1 matches.

Genesio subsequently became the first Marseille manager since Ivan Markovic in 1977 to lose three of his opening four league games.

Marseille begin their Europa League campaign away to Besiktas before eventually travelling to Glasgow in January, with Celtic potentially facing a very different-looking side by the time the two clubs meet at Parkhead.

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