マルセイユ元会長のタピ氏が死去、７８歳　がんで４年闘病

【マルセイユＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスの元閣僚で実業家のベルナール・タピ氏が３日、死去した。７８歳。家族が仏紙ラ・プロバンスで発表した。タピ氏は、がんで４年にわたり闘病生活を送っていた。（写真はベルナール・タピ氏。仏パリ郊外でのテレビ局フランス２のニュース番組収録にて）
　タピ氏はスポーツウエア大手アディダスの元オーナーで、仏サッカーリーグ１のクラブチーム「オリンピック・マルセイユ」が欧州チャンピオンズリーグ優勝を果たした当時の会長としても知られる。
　ドミニク・タピ夫人と家族は、「夫であり父であったベルナール・タピが３日に死去したことを、深い悲しみと共に発表する」と述べている。また、息子のステファン氏は、インスタグラムに「さようなら、私の不死鳥」と投稿した。
　家族によると、タピ氏本人は「心のふるさと」であるマルセイユに埋葬されることを希望していたという。
　パリの貧しい家庭に生まれたタピ氏は、フランスで最も成功した著名な実業家の一人となった。政界にも進出し、１９９０年代には社会党のフランソワ・ミッテラン内閣で都市問題担当相に就任。その後、国民議会（下院）議員や欧州議員を務めた。
　しかし、１９９０年代後半、仏サッカー界を揺るがす八百長スキャンダルに関与したとして有罪判決を受けて収監され、タピ氏の築いた帝国は崩壊した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/10/04-10:15）

Bernard Tapie, the French business magnate, actor and politician whose swashbuckling career earned him millions of fans despite a litany of legal convictions, died aged 78 on Sunday after a four-year fight with stomach cancer.
Dominique Tapie and his family have the immense sadness to announce the death of her husband and their father, Bernard Tapie, this Sunday, they said in a statement to La Provence newspaper in Marseille, in which Tapie was a majority stakeholder.
His death prompted condolences from politicians across the political spectrum, with President Emmanuel Macron hailing an ambition, energy and enthusiasm that were a source of inspiration for generations of French people.
This man, who had a combativeness that could move mountains and take down the moon, never gave up, his office said in a statement.
Dozens of admirers placed flowers outside Tapie's mansion in the posh Saint-Germain neighbourhood in Paris where he died.
He's what you used to call a prole who succeeded in climbing the entire social ladder at a time when working your way up wasn't so easy, said Ludovic, a 23-year-old who regretted that the media was beating up on him for 30 years.
Several French TV stations quickly changed their scheduled primetime programming for Sunday to air special reports, documentaries or several of his film and theatre performances.
- 'You have to fight' -
Born in a rough corner of Paris on January 26, 1943, Tapie rose from modest beginnings to become one of France's most successful and high-profile businessmen, buying up and reviving dozens of failing companies and revelling in his wealth with American-style flair.
A huge sports fan, he was the longtime chairman of the Olympique de Marseille football club and bought a cycling team that twice won the Tour de France, anchored by the French legend Bernard Hinault.
He guided Marseille to five successive league triumphs and the 1993 Champions League title. But charges of match-fixing tainted the team's Champions League victory -- the only time a French club has won the trophy.
A large black-and-white portrait of Tapie was erected outside the OM's Velodrame stadium in Marseille on Sunday, with fans gathering at the makeshift memorial.
He had an incredible destiny, he did it all -- business, politics, football, cycling, and the shenanigans -- I'm a huge fan, even if I can't forget some of his legal problems, said Jean-Michel Nicolas, seated on the terrasse of the OM Cafe in Marseille.
- Rise and fall -
Tapie also found time to act, building on the nightclub singing performances of his youth, taking roles that included a police inspector on a popular TV show.
He also dabbled in politics, becoming urban affairs minister in the Socialist government of Francois Mitterrand in the 1990s -- though only for two months.
Later he was elected as a leftist French and European Parliament MP based in Marseille, a city longtime considered a bastion of the right.
But Tapie's empire collapsed spectacularly in the late 1990s, beginning with the match-fixing trial that saw him serve time in jail.
He was also found guilty in a series of cases for corruption, tax fraud and misuse of corporate assets
But his most controversial prosecution came over his purchase of the German sports brand Adidas in 1990, which he was forced to sell just a few years later to the state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais.
Initially victorious in his claim that he was cheated over the sale price, Tapie was awarded 403 million euros ($470 million at current rates) by an arbitration panel in 2008.
But the payout quickly drew scrutiny for being approved by finance minister Christine Lagarde under then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, a longtime Tapie ally.
A court later found him and five others guilty of fraud and ordered Tapie to repay the money, a decision he appealed.
The ruling in that case is set for Wednesday, but Tapie's death means the court will end the legal proceedings against him.
But many of his companies are still facing liquidation and forced asset sales to repay the arbitration money.
Lagarde, now president of the European Central Bank, was found guilty of negligence in 2016, though she received neither a fine or jail time.
In a book published this year -- Bernard Tapie: Lessons of Life, Death and Love -- he called the Adidas sale the biggest of all the stupid mistakes in his career.