The file in 30 seconds

What matters

The failure

The club sold its best players without having their replacements ready for pre-season and the start of the league campaign.

The opacity

Richard and Lorenzi say OM had to sell before buying, but no precise ceiling or calculation is public.

What we are checking

OMLeaks has received information about possible financial wrongdoing and the management of the 2026 transfer window. Nothing will be published before it is corroborated.

The 2026 transfer window is the starting point of this investigation. OM sold their best players without having replacements ready. Mason Greenwood, the team’s best player, left. Other senior players followed. The club went through all of pre-season and began the league campaign without a signing. That is a major professional failure and a lack of respect for the club and those who follow it.

But our investigation does not stop with this summer. OMLeaks has also received information about possible financial wrongdoing connected with several transfers completed in recent years. These allegations are not established. We are seeking the contracts, mandates, invoices, accounts and independent confirmations that could prove or disprove them.

The current window and past recruitment raise the same requirement: words are no longer enough. For 2026, we want the ceilings and calculations that allegedly prevented the club from buying. For previous years, we want to know where the money went, which decisions sent it there and who benefited. In both cases, we want the documents.

What we have received and what we are looking for

The information received concerns possible financial wrongdoing connected with several past transfers and the management of the 2026 window, which we consider scandalous.

At this stage, that information is not established. We will publish nothing until it has been corroborated. We are seeking documents and independent confirmation: contracts, mandates, invoices, messages, minutes, accounts, decisions or direct testimony. Every item may confirm, refine or contradict what we have received.

We will not provide more detail before securing that verification. Revealing the information too early could weaken the search for documents and unnecessarily expose a source.

Once the file is sufficiently solid, we will send precise questions to the people concerned. We will then publish the established facts, the documents we can make public and their replies.

The leadership says it had to sell before buying. Fine. But it published neither the exact ceiling, the remaining room nor the calculation that would justify several departures for one arrival. After UEFA sanctions and missed financial targets, words alone are no longer enough.

Richard and Lorenzi have only just arrived. They did not create the entire liability. They now run the club and use those restrictions to explain their transfer window. They must therefore show the documents.

Final responsibility remains with Frank McCourt. He invested a great deal of money, but he also chose the executives, approved the budgets and funded the strategies that produced this situation. An owner cannot escape responsibility by saying that the people he appointed spent his money badly.

The status of our four requests and every reply received are published in the request tracker. No message is presented as sent without retained evidence.

What the documents establish

On 17 June, UEFA imposed €10 million in fines on OM. Six million punished the failure to meet the financial target agreed in 2022. Four million punished a squad-cost ratio above 70% in 2025. UEFA also imposed a List A restriction and a conditional exclusion from a future European competition.

On 26 June, the DNCG imposed restrictions on the wage bill and transfer fees. Those measures directly affect wages and the amounts paid to recruit players.

These documents do not say that OM were absolutely prohibited from recruiting. They publish no ceiling. They give neither the amount already used, the room remaining nor the exact conditions for lifting the measures. That is the problem.

The transfer window in six dates

  • 15 June. The market opens. OM begin the summer without a reinforcement.
  • 17 and 26 June. UEFA punish the club, then the DNCG restrict wages and transfer fees.
  • 14 July. Mason Greenwood, the team’s best player, leaves OM without a replacement ready.
  • Late July. Bruno Genesio asks for patience. August still begins without a signing.
  • 14 and 28 August. Grégory Lorenzi says OM must sell before buying, then explains that several departures would be needed to register one arrival.
  • 1 September. On the afternoon of the final day, OM have still registered no first-team reinforcement. The market closes at 19:59.

This timeline is enough to establish a failure of preparation. It does not prove that the DNCG or UEFA caused every transfer to fail. A deal may collapse because of the price, salary, player’s choice or competition. We will not blame the restrictions for what no document attributes to them.

“Sell before buying”: show the figures

On 14 August, Lorenzi said: “We have to sell players before we can complete new arrivals.” On 28 August, he added: “Even if we sell one player, we will not be allowed to register one arrival.” According to him, several departures were needed for a single arrival. Richard said OM had to reduce the wage bill.

We are not asking them to publish individual salaries or every confidential transfer clause. We are asking for what would allow the public to verify their words:

  • the wage-bill ceiling imposed or accepted;
  • the transfer-fee ceiling;
  • the amounts already used and the room still available;
  • the calculation explaining why several departures were needed for one arrival;
  • the duration of the measures and the conditions for lifting them.

Without those figures, “we have to sell” remains impossible to check. The executives may be right. They should show it.

This is not an isolated accident

OM signed a first UEFA settlement in 2019. Breaching it brought sanctions in 2020. A new agreement followed in 2022. The final target was missed in 2026. Executives changed, but the club is again under supervision after missing a trajectory it negotiated.

That repetition makes the current opacity even less acceptable. Supporters are not asking for every contract’s secrets. They are asking for the aggregate figures governing recruitment and the conditions for the club to leave these measures behind.

The documents in our requests

The four approaches and their true status are published in the request tracker. We are asking:

  • OM: for the decisions received, the ceilings, the remaining room and the records supporting the claim that several departures were needed before one arrival;
  • UEFA: for the reasoned decision, the ratio calculation, the 2022 agreement, the 2026/27 target and the formula applied to List A;
  • the FFF and DNCG: for the complete decisions, annexes, minutes, both ceilings and the conditions for lifting them;
  • the LFP: for the copies it holds, the missing financial reports and any document relating to an appeal.

We accept redacted versions where information is genuinely protected. We are not asking for every player’s salary. We are asking for the figures that allow the public explanation to be checked.

The Red Star precedent is clear. In 2022, the Collectif Red Star Bauer asked the FFF for documents concerning the review of the club’s sale to 777 Partners. The CADA issued a favourable opinion, then the administrative court ordered disclosure of documents produced by the FFF as part of its public-service mission, after protected information had been redacted. In other words, “confidential” cannot be used to hide everything. OMLeaks relies on that precedent when requesting accessible records concerning OM.

Help us verify the information received

We are looking for people with direct knowledge of the recruitment concerned or the management of the 2026 transfer window. Above all, we seek original documents: contracts, mandates, invoices, messages, minutes, accounts, decisions, letters, tables, budgets or correspondence. We do not want one more anonymous accusation. We want the document that confirms, refines or contradicts what we have received.

First contact is omleaks@proton.me. Before sending a sensitive document, simply describe what you hold and how you obtained access. Proton does not guarantee anonymity. An account, device or file may reveal information about its sender. OMLeaks promises neither publication, absolute anonymity nor legal protection. Read the precautions on our send information page.

We have received important information. Now we need the documents that will allow us to verify it and, if it holds up, publish it.

Documents and articles cited

Published sources

8 sources classified by evidence level.

Show all 8 sources
  1. Preuve directe
  2. Preuve directe
    Settlement agreements concluded in 2022UEFA · accessed 29 August 2026
  3. Preuve directe
  4. Preuve directe
    DNCG decision summary, 23 June 2026Ligue de Football Professionnel · accessed 29 August 2026
  5. Preuve directe
    DNCG decision summary, 26 June 2026Ligue de Football Professionnel · accessed 29 August 2026
  6. Preuve directe
    Official 2026/27 French transfer-window datesLigue de Football Professionnel · accessed 30 August 2026
  7. Éléments concordants
    Mason Greenwood leaves OM for FenerbahçeL’Équipe · accessed 30 August 2026
  8. Éléments concordants
    Mason Greenwood at OM: 48 goals and 17 assists in 81 matchesFootball Club de Marseille · accessed 30 August 2026

Corrections and updates

No correction to date. Every material change will be dated and explained here.