At the official presentation of Hatem Ben Arfa on Wednesday, OM's president answered numerous questions about the conditions surrounding the agreement that was reached on Tuesday night. Here are some of his replies:

About the recruitment of Ben Arfa…
« He is a precious and important recruit for Olympique de Marseille. We can be proud of pulling the transfer off  »

About the conclusion of the litigation …
« Despite all the gesturing, the cries and the bravado, the outcome of the whole thing proves that we were right  ».

About the « efforts » made by both parties…
« I saw how Lyon put down, on their website, the conditions of the agreement, completely leaving out the efforts that the club made to reach it (…) We all know Jean-Michel Aulas. Aulas likes to win … even invented victories. That’s ok (…) We stuck to our guns we believed what we were saying. We didn’t step on any of our principles. Everybody put in their good will. We made efforts. The one that I had already proposed to Jean-Michel Aulas on Friday night in order to get of the rut we were in. I reiterated this offer on Tuesday, which was more aimed at sorting out Hatem’s problem than pushing up the transfer fee. This suggestion that Jean-Michel Aulas had refused was then accepted by him ».

About the declarations of Jean-Michel Aulas talking about an « elite   formed by OM and OL »…
« I think it was a way for Jean-Michel Aulas to renew the relationship between the two clubs. It had gotten tense, reaching levels that we didn’t want them to. Through his last declarations, Jean-Michel Aulas hoped to install good relations between the clubs, more polite and civilised. Of course, I’m not opposed to that at all  ».