Former Marseille and Senegal international Habib Beye has asserted the French club do not have the resources to provide a quality squad in the Champions League for manager Andre Villas-Boas.
The Portuguese tactician led the Olympians to a second-place finish in Ligue 1, thus earning them a berth among Europe's elite for the first time since 2013.
However, a rift has ensued between Villas-Boas and club president Jacques-Henri Eyraud who recently fired Andoni Zubizarreta from his role as sporting director.
Zubizarreta was responsible for bringing Villas-Boas to Stade Velodrome but the former Chelsea boss is considering his future.
Marseille are reported to offer him a one-year contract extension with the current deal set to expire in 2021 so he can continue to lead the club in the Champions League. There is however no indication he is keen to sign yet.
"If Andre Villas-Boas wants to go to the Champions League, he wants a high-performance team," Beye told Canal+.
"Marseille today, with its finances, cannot offer him a high-performance team"
Villas-Boas was part of the backroom of Jose Mourinho's successful spells at FC Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan between 2002 and 2010.
The 42-year-old began his senior managerial career with Academica before moving to Porto where he won the 2011 Europa League.
He then managed Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Zenit Saint Petersburg and Shanghai SIPG before joining Marseille in the summer of 2019.
Beye represented Marseille between 2003 and 2007 making 174 appearances, scoring two goals and providing five assists.
It is the club he had the most outings with in his career followed by Strasbourg (150 appearances) and Newcastle United (54 appearances). He also had spells with Aston Villa and Doncaster Rovers.
During his time at Marseille, the club finished runners up in the 2004 Uefa Cup (now Europa League) and runners-up in the 2006 and 2007 French Cup.
Beye was also capped 35 times with the Senegal national team where they finished runners-up at the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations and reached the quarter-finals at their maiden World Cup the same year.