Olympique de Marseille is like a religion for its passionate fans. A tumultuous love story that began in 1899 and has never been short of highs, lows and controversy ever since.
The French side, which adopted the prefix 'Olympique' as an homage to the Greeks who founded Marseille in 600 BC and the ancient Olympic games, have long strived to be the best.
When they won the 1993 European Cup, now the Champions League, fans rejoiced and the immortal words of 'A jamais les premiers' (Forever the first) were born.
This is apt as Marseille (or OM for short), who were originally founded predominantly as a rugby club before football came to the fore, won the first edition of the Championnat du Littoral - a tournament with clubs from the city and Bouche-du-Rhone, in 1899.
To this day, Les Olympiens, who remain the only French side to have won the Champions League, top the pile for most top-flight appearances (68), most wins in the division (992), and most goals scored in that league (3,611).
Before Qatar Sports Investments purchased Paris Saint-Germain in 2011, where they have since won 30 domestic trophies, Marseille were France's most successful club - with nine Ligue 1 triumphs and ten Coupe de France wins among their 27 worldwide titles.
It's not been all rosy, however. Following relegation to Ligue 2 in 1959, the club arguably reached its lowest ebb in 1965 when just over 400 spectators attended a match against Forbach.
And after one of the most dominant periods in French football history, where Marseille won five league titles in a row between 1988-93 under president Bernard Tapie, the club was caught up in the l'affaire VA-OM match-fixing scandal.
Mere weeks after Basile Boli secured Marseille the European Cup with a 1-0 over an AC Milan side featuring Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten, they were stripped of the Ligue 1 title they won in 1993, relegated from the French top flight, and banned from playing in the 1993/94 Champions League.
In June of that year, Marseille, PSG, and Monaco were preparing for a final day of the season shoot-out to win the league. After pipping their rivals to the title following a 1-0 win over Valenciennes, it later emerged that four Valenciennes players were offered money to "take their foot off the gas".
A criminal investigation resulted in President Tapie serving eight months in jail and Marseille midfielder Jean-Jacques Eydelie was given a suspended sentence and banned from football for 18 months.
Club legend Didier Deschamps returned Marseille to its former glory when they won Ligue 1 in the 2009/10 season, along with three league cups between 2009-12, but they haven't tasted silverware since then.
That has not stopped them from making the headlines, though. Since American businessman Frank McCourt took over from Margarita Louis-Dreyfus in 2016, seven managers have come and gone.
In the final throes of Andre Villas-Boas' managerial reign, rioting OM fans ransacked the club's training ground in February 2021. Marseille defender Álvaro González was injured, cars were damaged, thefts were made and 25 were arrested.
In the past few months alone, Igor Tudor, who led Marseille to third in the league last season and into the Champions League qualifying rounds, resigned; his successor Marcelino stepped down after just three months and seven games in charge, and now AC Milan legend Gennaro Gattuso is at the helm.
OM, who were knocked out in the third qualifying round by Panathinaikos and then dropped into the Europa League, sit 12th in Ligue 1 and played out a thrilling 3-3 draw against Ajax in their opening group game.
Marseille's motto is 'Droit au but' (straight to the point). Under new manager Gattuso, the club's fans will hope their side will be more direct when they take on Brighton in their second Europa League match on Thursday at the 67,000-seater Stade Velodrome.