From EuroLeague Runner-Up to French Third Division: Monaco Excluded from Professional Basketball

In May 2025, AS Monaco played in the EuroLeague final in Abu Dhabi and lost to Fenerbahce. Fifteen months later, the Principality club has been excluded from French professional basketball. The French Federation has refused to reopen its case, and the team has no place in the Betclic ÉLITE or ÉLITE 2, according to Marca. At best, it will compete in Nationale 1, the country's third tier.

The club would still have the option of appealing to the Administrative Court, though several sources suggest it will not pursue that route.

A collapse that began in Moscow

The root of everything lies far from the court. The club's owner, Russian-Hungarian billionaire Alexei Fedorychev, had his accounts frozen as a result of the Ukraine war, and without that capital, the structure collapsed in a chain reaction: unpaid wages, sanctions that prevented signings, player departures, the exit of head coach Vassilis Spanoulis, and even strike threats before league games.

What is remarkable is what happened in the meantime. Against this backdrop and relying heavily on junior players at times, Monaco won all four titles available in French basketball last season. Winning everything while the club was crumbling from within is one of those stories that sport produces only once in many years.

It was not enough. A €30 million injection from the Principality through the National Financing Company reached the table, but French sports authorities determined there were insufficient guarantees to register the team in professional competitions. The emergence of former NBA player Jamal Mashburn as a potential savior came to nothing.

The summer exodus

The dismantling of the roster is a snapshot of the outcome. Elie Okobo and Jaron Blossomgame left for Dubai. Alpha Diallo will play for the Denver Nuggets. Mike James and Matthew Strazel will be under the orders of Pablo Laso at Anadolu Efes. And Daniel Theis has committed to Maccabi Tel Aviv after previously signing with ASVEL Villeurbanne, another French club that has also had to scale back its ambitions for economic reasons.

That last point matters: the problem is not just Monaco's. French basketball is undergoing an adjustment that affects several of its flagship clubs just as its generation of players dominates the NBA draft.

A precedent that offers little comfort

There is a precedent, and it is illustrious. In 2004, the same thing happened to Limoges, European champion in 1993, which also fell to the third tier due to economic problems. The club eventually returned and won the French league again in 2014, so the path back exists. But it takes a decade to travel it.