MARSEILLES, France, June 9 - A French court found
the former coach of Olympique Marseille Rolland Courbis and club
owner Robert Louis-Dreyfus guilty on Friday of involvement in a
fraud scandal involving player transfers in the late 1990s.
Courbis was sentenced to three and a half years in prison
and Louis-Dreyfus received a three-year suspended sentence,
according to the verdict read out in the court.
The men were also fined 375,000 euros ($480,800) each.
Prosecutors said some 22 million euros ($28.21 million) were
illegally diverted from club funds as part of the transfer of 15
players between 1997 and 1999 -- including those of France 1998
World Cup winners Laurent Blanc and Christophe Dugarry.
The ruling, coming only hours before the first match of the
2006 World Cup finals, was another reminder of the seamy side of
the game, which is still coming to terms with a major
match-fixing scandal in Italy.