The Euroleague confirmed this Friday its decision to ban Monaco from recruitment until the Principality club has settled its debts. The Roca Team will also have to pay a fine of 300,000 euros.
If on the floor the Euroleague season is going rather well for Monaco, with fifth place after thirteen days (8 wins – 5 losses), just one win behind the top three, things are more complicated behind the scenes. On November 10, the Euroleague decided to temporarily ban Roca Team from recruitment (players and coaches) due to “late payments, failure to provide the required documentation and lack of cooperation. » And this Thursday, the body decided to confirm this provisional sanction, and to add a fine of 300,000 euros.
An appeal to the CAS?
“The Euroleague Basketball Financial Commission, an independent regulatory body, has imposed a sanction on AS Monaco consisting of a ban on qualifying new players and coaches until one month after full payment of the sums due or the conclusion of an agreement, as well as a fine of €300,000 for violations of articles 32(a), 32(c) and 32(e) of the Euroleague Basketball Disciplinary Code,” the press release said. (…) The Financial Commission had opened a contentious procedure and pronounced a provisional suspension of AS Monaco, prohibiting it from registering players and coaches. This provisional suspension is maintained until full payment of the sums due. The sanctions imposed take into account the seriousness of the infractions, including non-payment of invoices, failure to provide required documents and lack of cooperation with the Management Control Commission. This decision is subject to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. »
A small squad for Monaco
During the first sanction, the Principality club defended itself, ensuring that it “fully respected the principles of financial stability and fair play and will cooperate closely with the financial committee in order to resolve this issue quickly and definitively. » This was obviously not the case. AS Monaco currently has 13 players registered in the Euroleague, compared to 20 for Red Star Belgrade, and 17 for Hapoel Tel Aviv and Panathinaikos, the three Euroleague leaders. But the workforce will not be able to grow until the ASM has settled its debt.
