‘An event of extreme violence’ – Marseille president Pablo Longoria describes Rabiot-Rowe clash | OneFootball

Olympique de Marseille president Pablo Longoria has explained the decision to sideline Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe following their post-match altercation in Rennes last Friday. Speaking to AFP on Wednesday, Longoria called the incident “an event of a gravity and violence that is extreme, something unheard of.”

Rabiot and Rowe clashed in the dressing room after OM’s 1-0 defeat at Roazhon Park, with the confrontation escalating into what Longoria described as “a fight without limits.” Both players were excluded from training on Monday before the club confirmed on Tuesday that they had been placed on the transfer list due to “unacceptable behaviour in the dressing room.”

“We had to take a decision after an event that went beyond the acceptable limits in a football club, as in any organisation,” Longoria told AFP. “It’s a decision that protects the institution, that protects the season. Roberto De Zerbi has been coaching for 13 years, Mehdi Benatia has been in top-level football since he was 22, and I have worked in professional football for 20 years. We have enough experience between us to say we had never seen something like this in a dressing room.”

Asked about the impact of losing one of OM’s key performers from last season, Longoria stressed that the club had little choice. “Do you think that I, as president of Olympique de Marseille, am happy to arrive at this type of situation with one of last season’s most important players, someone I presented as an example? Honestly, as a club, we are victims of the situation. We are enduring it.”

The fallout leaves Marseille facing the likely departure of both Rabiot and Rowe before the end of the transfer window, with Longoria confirming that the club is moving on from the pair after what he called “something completely unheard of in football.”GFFN | George Boxall