Controversial ex-Adidas owner: entrepreneur legend Bernard Tapie is dead

Controversial ex-Adidas owner
Entrepreneur legend Bernard Tapie is dead

Bernard Tapie was a manager, politician, singer and TV presenter – among others. The companies he bought and sold throughout his life included the sporting goods manufacturer Adidas and the football club Olympique Marseille. Bernard Tapie has now died at the age of 78.

The French businessman and former Adidas owner Bernard Tapie is dead. He died in the morning at the age of 78 of cancer, as his family told the newspaper “La Provence”. One of his sons confirmed the death on Instagram with a short message: “Goodbye, my phoenix”.

Tapie was a colorful manager and ex-politician who was highly controversial in France. In Germany he was best known as a former Adidas owner. The sale of his shares in the German sporting goods manufacturer preoccupied courts for years. In July 2019, he was acquitted of charges of fraud and evasion of public funds in the Adidas affair.

Under the socialist President François Mitterrand, Tapie was Minister for Urban Development in the 1990s. He was also responsible for one of the biggest scandals in European football history: he was sentenced to eight months in prison at the end of 1995 for the bribery affair involving the Olympique Marseille club, which he bought in 1986. Tapie had to file for personal bankruptcy before that.

Tapie had suffered from cancer for years. His condition had deteriorated significantly in the past few months.

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