Soccer-Marseille owner warns club sale may take years

Aug 4 (Reuters) - Olympique de Marseille's majority owner, billionaire businesswoman Margarita Louis-Dreyfus, has said it could take years to sell the Ligue 1 club. Louis-Dreyfus, the Russian-born chairwoman of Louis Dreyfus Commodities trading house, said in April that she was looking for a buyer for Marseille. Asked on Thursday how long the process could take, she replied: "I don't know how long it will take. Maybe some months or some years." "As I said in April, I have decided to sell OM, but this doesn't mean that I've stopped taking care of the club," she added in a news conference. "The process of selling the club is underway and ongoing. My priority is not profit, but to find a new owner who will take good care of the club. Potential buyers take considerable time to analyse the complexity of the club." Louis-Dreyfus took control of the club after the death of her husband Robert in 2009, but despite investing tens of millions of euros in recent years, Marseille could only manage a 13th-placed Ligue 1 finish last term. (Reporting by Ed Dove; Editing by Toby Davis)