‘Betrayal’: Pernod Ricard’s PSG tie-up leaves bitter taste for Marseille fans

It is the quintessential pre-dinner apéro enjoyed in the Provençal afternoon sun, as unmistakably southern French as the clicking sound of a game of pétanque.

But the cloudy, aniseed-flavoured aperitif Ricard Pastis is leaving an aftertaste even more bitter than its makers intended in the mouths of some football fans in the southern city of Marseille.

Supporters of Olympique de Marseille, the city’s football club, have expressed anger after the Provence-based spirits giant Pernod Ricard announced on Monday it was entering into a brand partnership with Marseille’s traditional sporting rival, Paris Saint-Germain.

“It’s a stab in the back, nothing more, nothing less,” said one Marseille supporter on X. “I have no words,” said another. “When will the Bordeaux vineyard sponsor Toulouse FC or the Lyonnais bouchons [restaurants serving traditional Lyonnaise food] sponsor Saint-Étienne?” Rum would make a perfectly acceptable aperitif in the future, they suggested.

“Marseille deserves better than brands that sell their soul for Qatari euros,” said another supporter.

Marseille and PSG, the only French clubs to have won major European trophies, have shared an intense rivalry since the 1970s, though PSG has started to dominate Ligue 1 since it was taken over by the emir of Qatar in 2011.

In response to the news of the brand tie-up, one fan rewrote the lyrics to a traditional drinking song dedicated to Pernod Ricard’s Pastis 51, 51 je t’aime. “You used to dominate our bars at all the apéros,” the lyrics shared on Marselle fan accounts read. “Now you’re served in a stadium full of fascists” – a reference to the political leanings of the biggest PSG “ultra” group that used to dominate its Parc des Princes ground in Paris in the 1990s.

Paul Ricard concocted the first pastis drink after a 1915 ban on the more potent absinthe, which was thought to cause hallucinations and madness. Containing star anise as a key ingredient, pastis has been marketed as a ready-made drink since 1932 and is traditionally served diluted by a ratio of five parts water to one part spirit.

The blue-and-yellow logo on Ricard bottles was supposedly inspired by the sky and sun seen from Marseille, where the spirits company is still based and which it hails, in its adverts, as “the best city in the world (according to the people of Marseille)”.

In response to the fans’ furore, a Pernod Ricard spokesperson told the regional radio station France Bleu Provence there had been a “lack of understanding” about the nature of the brand partnership; the Provençal company was linking up with the Parisian club not as the maker of pastis but as a global drinks brand that also owns Absolut vodka, Jameson whiskey, Beefeater gin, Malibu liqueur and Mumm and Perrier-Jouët champagnes.

The four-year deal between Pernod Ricard and PSG means the drinks company will be the club’s sole provider of champagne and spirits but not a shirt sponsor.

The “Évin law”, which regulates alcohol marketing in France, bans sponsorship advertising of any drink with an alcohol content of more than 1.2%

Not all fans will be easily placated. “It’s a betrayal,” one Marseille supporter, Thibault, told TF1 info. “We understand the political, marketing and commercial issues,” he conceded, while lamenting that modern brands tended to forget where they came from.

“It won’t change anything during aperitif hours,” he said. “We’ll talk about it at the next match; we’ll maybe boycott it once, twice, but then we’ll quickly forget.”