“Examining Referee Clément Turpin’s Impact on Olympique de Marseille’s Performance in Ligue 1”

Here, no disputed refereeing decisions or canceled goals, nothing but the facts: the yellow and red cards collected which can influence a match, the penalties awarded to a team in its favor and against the opponent, the issues of matches. At the heart of the debates, arbitration decisions can stir up tensions among supporters and when they affect a club like Olympique de Marseille, the sounding board is immense.

So, among the 23 referees of the FFF who officiate in Ligue 1, Clément Turpin is in the spotlight after the canceled goal against Lens, after the red card awarded to Samuel Gigot against Paris, after multiple decisions having disappointed the Marseillais. The Rhodanien, international French referee, is he anti-Marseillais? The answer is quite clear, with Clément Turpin on the whistle since the 2008-2009 season and 262 matches refereed in Ligue 1, OM (45.9%) is after the TFC (61.5%) the elite team which knows the highest loss ratio. No team has more defeats (17) than OM among the 34 clubs refereed by Turpin in his career. On the other hand, it is Paris that wins the most with him on the whistle: 26 victories in 40 officiated matches, or 65% success.

To be more efficient and fairer, it is also OM who concede the most penalties (9), i.e. one every 370 minutes, while penalties against Paris (every 1200 minutes) and against Lyon (1260 minutes) for example are much rarer. On the other hand, Turpin whistles more penalties in favor of Paris than for any other formation of the elite: every 276 minutes. Note the very favorable position given to Lille, all statistics combined: very low loss ratio (17.1%), frequent penalties in their favor, rare shots on goal against them. Let us add that the figures brought to Saint-Etienne seem handicapping for the rival club of Lyon.

Finally, to be complete and not paranoid, OM is not the club most penalized by cards administered by Clément Turpin, with an average of 1.86 cards per match, the Olympian club is in the high range, but is exceeded by Ajaccio (2.42), Lens (2.11) or Toulouse (2.15). Also, no Olympian player seems to be Turpin’s target, although Valbuena (5) and Rod Fanni (5) are the most sanctioned ex-Olympians.

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