Marseille have sensationally threatened to leave Ligue 1 and join a new league as manager Roberto De Zerbi pulled no punches during his latest interview.
On Saturday, Marseille lost to Auxerre at the Stade de I'Abbe Deschamps as goals from Gaetan Perrin and Jubal sealed a 3-0 win.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men in the 63rd minute after Derek Cornelius was shown a second yellow card, which ignited the fumes among the Marseille camp.
After the match, former Brighton and Hove Albion boss De Zerbi said, via the Daily Mail: "I'm Italian, and after OM I'm not going to coach in France again. There's a problem in the French championship, if French people are happy with this level of decision making, then good for them. But today it was scandalous.
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"The referee was not in [the right state of mind to officiate] this match because of all the controversy surrounding him."
De Zerbi's words came on the back of Marseille sending a complaint to the board of arbitration of referees earlier in the week over the decision to appoint Jeremy Stinat as the referee.
As reported by the Daily Mail, Marseille were not keen on Stinat's appointment as he played a key role in 'the three-month suspension handed to Marseille's director of football Medhi Benatia after they were knocked out of the Coupe de France by Lille last month'.
Aside from De Zerbi, Marseille president Pablo Longoria also expressed his anger and has threatened to take the club out of Ligue 1.
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As claimed by French news outlet La Provence, Longoria said: "Everything has been organised. It's planned, it's rigged. There's a penalty on Merlin, four European referees have told me so by message, and the most scandalous thing is the red card to Cornelius.
"This is a sh***y championship, If the Super League comes to see us, we'll go right away."
On the back of the comments made by Longoria, France’s referee’s union, SAFE, issued a statement.
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As reported by The Athletic, it read: "Lawsuits will be filed for defamation. And against all those behind the hate messages and death threats received since last night.
"French referees are not corrupt. Losing a game can’t justify questioning the integrity of French referees.
"To suggest there’s a system of organised corruption is not only defamatory for the referees in the professional leagues; it’s proof of ignorance of their work and their commitment to serving football and it is to throw to the wolves all the referees officiating at professional, but also amateur, levels with the consequences that this can bring."
Marcus Chan