8 Most Hated Football Teams Of All Time

5. Olympique de Marseille (1992-3)

Bernard Tapie is one of the most divisive figures in French football, even amongst supporters of the club he ruled as president in the early 1990's, Marseille. On one hand, he is responsible for bringing together one of the greatest teams that French football has ever seen-the most exciting team in Europe at the time-and on the other, he is loathed as the man who brought it all crashing down in a sleaze-storm of match-rigging. As much as Marseille were loved for their free-flowing football, they and their controversial chairman became hated as an emblem of dirty play and cheating. It shouldn't have been this way. The team that Tapie had constructed in his pursuit for the European reads like a who's who of world football: Jean-Pierre Papin, Basile Boli, Chris Waddle, Didier Deschamps, Eric Cantona, Rudi Voller and Marcel Desailly were all signed as Marseille dominated the French game between 1988 and 1992 under coaches such as Franz Beckenbauer. The team swept all before them, and in 1992-3 were powering towards the final of the inaugural Champions League that had replaced the European Cup. The team would eventually triumph 1-0 against AC Milan in a supremely tense and entertaining game through a Boli goal, writing their name into the annuls of history. However, it came at a huge cost. Marseille had a match against Valenciennes just days before the final. Worried that the palyers may risk injury, Tapie offered bribes to three Valenciennes players in order to let Marseilles win and 'take it easy' against them. When the scandal was uncovered, Marseille were barred from European competition, stripped of the title and relegated. Much of the side was dismantled, and it would be another 18 years before Marseille won another title. Even harsher was the fate that befell Valenciennes. Hamstrung by the financial penalties, they began a gradual decline that saw them lose their league status as they plummeted through the leagues. Marseille has been adored by tens of thousands of admirers' previous to Tapie's foolhardy actions, afterwards, they found the label of cheats stuck closely to them for years. For the supporters of Valenciennes at least, they and their chairmen became figures of hate.