Netflix prepares documentary on VA-OM affair with unprecedented revelations promised

Netflix is preparing a documentary on the Valenciennes-Marseille affair, the 1993 corruption scandal that precipitated the fall of Bernard Tapie’s club just weeks after OM’s triumph in the UEFA Champions League. The release is scheduled for late 2026.

It is Emmanuel Chain, producer and former figure of the magazine Capital, who confirmed being in charge of the project during the show “On refait la télé” on RTL. He promises unprecedented material: “We think we know a lot of things, but there will be new revelations and completely unprecedented testimonies. And that will, I think, make waves.”

Netflix’s commission comes in the wake of the success of its recent documentary on the Knysna fiasco and the episode of the tricolour coach, which had met with a wide echo among the French public.

The VA-OM affair remains one of the darkest pages in French football. The conviction of Bernard Tapie, then president of OM, led to the club’s relegation to the second division for two seasons and nearly led it to bankruptcy. Since then, Marseille has never again reached the level of 1993: a single French championship title, in 2010 under Didier Deschamps, and three lost European finals — in the UEFA Cup in 1999 and 2004, in the Europa League in 2018.