Marseille’s majority shareholder Robert Louis-Dreyfus died after a long battle with leukemia on Saturday at the age of 63, according to club sources.
The Swiss-born millionaire businessman took over Marseille in 1996 and under his control the French south coast giants reached two UEFA Cup finals.
Louis-Dreyfus, who invested 200 million euros into the club, was also handed a 10 month suspended prison sentence and fined 200,000 euros for his role in suspect player transfers in the 1990s.
Jean-Claude Dassier, Marseille’s new president, refused to confirm or deny the news, telling AFP: “Neither the family nor the friends of Robert louis-Dreyfus have confirmed this information to me. I don’t have anything to say before the family (speaks).”
