OM's wage bill still exceeds limits ahead of DNCG hearing

Olympique de Marseille faces a precarious situation ahead of its next hearing before the Direction nationale du contrôle de gestion (DNCG), scheduled for the coming weeks. The Marseille club has not honoured the commitments made last summer to French football’s financial watchdog, despite unprecedented efforts on wage reduction.

President Stéphane Richard himself acknowledged this as early as 2 September, at the close of the summer transfer window: “We haven’t reached the targets if we reason in terms of the 2026-2027 season wage bill. We’re not there, but we did the maximum based on the market.” Eight players left the club without a single signing being registered, an unprecedented off-season that allowed the wage bill to be cut by 30 to 35% according to Richard — “never seen in the club’s history,” in his own words.

But the DNCG, which had already imposed a wage bill and transfer compensation cap on 26 June, was expecting a 40% reduction. The gap, though narrowed, exposes OM to fresh sanctions at the next hearing. Richard had summed up the impasse last summer: “The braking imposed on us by the DNCG is so brutal that we would have had to sell virtually the entire squad before we could even begin to recruit.”

In an attempt to bridge the remaining shortfall, the Marseille board has held talks in recent days with several players in Bruno Genesio’s squad to secure wage cuts or deferrals. These discussions failed: the players involved, some of whom had already made concessions during the transfer window, refused to sign a new amendment to their contracts.

The outcome now depends largely on principal shareholder Frank McCourt, who is seeking new financial partners to shore up the club’s finances. Without external investment or further concessions from the squad, OM enters the winter transfer window under extreme pressure, with the spectre of even stricter restrictions imposed by the DNCG.