In 2025, they took second place in the EuroLeague.
However, after playing in the EuroLeague playoffs for five consecutive years and paying millions to basketball stars, the “Monaco” club is withdrawing.
Last autumn, the Monaco club, which entered the EuroLeague season with one of the largest budgets, began to suffocate when the financial flows from the club owner of Russian origin, Aleksey Fedorychev, stopped.
The principality’s leaders threw a financial lifeline to finish the season, but coach Vassilis Spanoulis left the team, Mike James boycotted for several weeks and did not play due to the club’s debts, and after finally winning the French league title, the club was left without its best players.
“Monaco” moved from the EuroLeague to the EuroCup, announcing a planned budget of 12.5 million euros, but it is now clear that even this amount, several times smaller than during the EuroLeague days, is not guaranteed.
Now “Monaco” is trying to defend its right to play in the French league, and the media reports a strange situation.
Providing guarantees before the meeting of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, the club’s lawyer Xavier Le Cerf-galle “Nice-Martin” still spoke about a 12.5 million euro budget in the morning, but a few hours later the “Cote d’Azur” newspaper reported that the presented potential budget would be about 6-7 million euros for the season.
Such a significant change illustrates even more clearly the unclear situation of the French champions.
“Monaco” claims to have gotten rid of its large debts and has 5 million in planned resources, of which 3.3 million can be documented.
Although headlines about negotiations for former NBA player Jamal Mashburn’s investment plans flashed in recent weeks, and then the investment project of former Brazilian football star Ronaldinho emerged, the reality is grayer.
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Officially, no major investor has been announced, and the roster planned at the beginning of summer is gradually falling apart. The big man Mathis Dossou-Yovo, who had a contract with “Monaco,” signed with Villeurbanne ASVEL, while the situations of Yakuba Ouattara and Joël Ayayi remain unclear, writes “BeBasket”.
After twice denying permission to start in the national basketball league, French sports officials must soon make a final decision on the further fate of “Monaco”.
“Monaco has not yet been relegated from the championship. However, chaos still reigns in the Principality,” wrote “L’Equipe”.
