Former Marseille coach arrested

Former Marseille coach Rolland Courbis, who has lost appeals against a two-year jail term for accepting transfer bungs between 1997 and 1999, has been taken into custody by police, according to a judicial source.

Courbis, 56, was taken into custody after watching a match at the Velodrome between Marseille and Montpellier, the team that he coached last year.

“He was being sought, it’s not surprising,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

The former Marseille boss was in 2006 handed a three-year jail term, fined 375,000 euros (550,000 dollars) and banned from holding any function related to football for five years over the transfers of 15 players, including that of former France international Christophe Dugarry and former Italy forward Fabrizio Ravanelli.

An appeals court in 2007 reduced the jail term to two years, cut the fine 200,000 euros, and struck the ban on working in football, which was confirmed in a further and final appeal in October 2008.