French Club Olympique Marseille Couldn’t Go Home Because The Pilot Didn’t Pay His Credit Card Bill

Sure, our sporting experience doesn’t go past high school, but wanting to go home after a bad loss transcends age or experience. Nothing will do other than your bed and six or seven mistresses. Oh sorry, we got our experiences mixed up with those of players from French side Olympique Marseille, whose charter flight to go home after losing in a Champions League match in Spain against Atletico Madrid got delayed because of a little hiccup. Well, not so little–Exxon didn’t accept the pilot’s credit card to buy gas, leaving the team to divvy up and split the cost to get back home. Their coach Eric Gerets obviously got angry, but it was more misplaced than the others.

What to do? The players and coaches passed the hat and came up with the necessary 3,000 euros ($4,090) to buy the fuel. Marseille Coach Eric Gerets, a former Belgian World Cup player, was not amused.

“I wanted to buy two cigars, but I gave 100 euros, which meant I was not able to smoke today,” he said. “I felt as though I was in a film, a bad one. Had we won, I would not have cared, but because we lost it was a little more difficult to take.”

Yes, we believe that film’s on our Netflix queue. It’s call The 400 Puffs, about a passive aggressive chain smoking soccer coach who can’t prioritize things in life and, in the end, learns the true meaning of Christmas. Oh, those French auteurs.
Soccer coach’s plans go up in smoke [LA Times]
Image [AFP]