Olympique Marseille during happier times: lifting the 1993 Champions League trophy. (Georges Gobet/Getty Images)

Time, they say, heals all wounds, but for Olympique de Marseille, the pain still lingers.

A closed chapter in French soccer history will be re-opened this weekend for the first time in over a decade when Marseille hosts newly-promoted Valenciennes in Ligue 1, the French first division.

In 1993, long before revelations of Juventus' recent chicanery came to light, Marseille became engulfed in a major match-fixing scandal that sent shockwaves throughout the sport, the aftermath of which decimated the famous French club.

Thirteen years later, Marseille is still trying to recover.

You wouldn't know it by their current form, but the team from the south of France was one of the best clubs in Europe in the early 1990s.

Playing an attacking brand of soccer known as "champagne football," Marseille swept aside the competition to win four consecutive French league titles from 1989-92, thanks to the talents of French stars Didier Deschamps, Marcel Desailly, Jean-Pierre Papin and Fabian Barthez.

Marquee players from all across Europe - most notably English winger Chris Waddle, German forward Rudi Voller and Croatian striker Alen Boksic - noticed what was going on in Marseille and flocked to the famous Mediterranean port city.

With an all-star roster, Marseille won game after game before a ball was even kicked, such was the level of intimidation they wielded over their opponents.

Visiting clubs to the Stade Velodrome wilted under the pressure, as they were routinely barraged by the deafening chants of the Marseille fans: "Allez l'OM, allez!" - "Go Marseille, go!" - became one of the most famous battle cries in world soccer.

Marseille's success wasn't just limited to France, either.

The club reached the finals of the 1991 European Cup, the forerunner to today's Champions League, succumbing to Red Star Belgrade in a penalty shootout. Despite the loss, Marseille still won the respect of their soccer brethren across the continent and critics agreed that it was only a matter of time before they would become the first French team to win the prestigious tournament.

Marseille fulfilled that destiny two years later when it upset Italian juggernaut AC Milan in the Champions League final in Munich. A new era in European soccer, the French era, was born … but it didn't last long.

Prior to the Champions League final, Marseille was involved in a dogfight with Paris St. Germain and Monaco atop the French standings. With the season in the home stretch, Marseille held a slender lead over the two clubs as it attempted to win a fifth consecutive league title.

On May 20, Marseille recorded a key 1-0 victory over lowly Valenciennes, who sat near the bottom of the division. Six days later, Marseille won the Champions League final and three days after their triumph in Munich they wrapped up another French league crown.

Marseille was on top of the soccer world, but they quickly came crashing down when match-fixing allegations were levelled against Marseille and their president Bernard Tapie just days after their historic Champions League victory.

Valenciennes player Jacques Glassmann claimed Marseille tried to bribe several of his teammates to throw the May 20 match, thus enabling Marseille to rest several key players and take it easy in preparation for their impending contest against Milan.

The French press had a field day with the Marseille-Valenciennes affair. Tapie and several Valenciennes players were charged, tried and convicted in a spectacular criminal court case that dragged out for more than a year and fully exposed the bribery scheme.

Marseille was stripped of its 1993 French league medal and although they kept their Champions League crown (the legitimacy of the result against Milan was never in question), they became the first team in the competition's history to be barred from defending its title.

Both clubs were relegated to France's second division and Valenciennes were demoted to the third division the following year for financial reasons before losing their professional status as they fell into the fourth division in 1997.

Valenciennes finally won promotion back to Ligue 1 last season.

Marseille did not drop as far down as Valenciennes, but the club has never been the same since being engulfed in the biggest match-fixing case in French soccer - it's been 13 years since they last won a major trophy.

Their chances of ending the drought this season look bleak.

Four losses in their last four games has seen the club slip from title contenders to pretenders - Marseille resides in eighth place in the French standings, a whopping 14 points off the pace of front runners Olympique Lyon, who look a sure bet to win their fifth straight league title.

Marseille's battle for respectability continues.