Princely Monaco eye the throne
The Principality of Monaco, a ‘micronation’ caressed by the Mediterranean waters on its sea face and embraced by France on the land, has long been of a great interest to economists. The tiny nation — with its famous casinos, one of the highest per-head GDP and streets filled with billionaires, thanks to it’s zero-income tax policy — is an ideal place to analyse flow of money.
For the majority sports fans, the Principality arouses interest just once a year — when the powerful F1 cars zip through its streets at the Monaco GP. For highly successful sports-personalities, like Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Novak Djokovic and Sebastien Loeb, Monaco is ‘home’ — a beautiful coastal state where they can reside without paying any income tax, legally.
But come 2013-14 season, Monaco would interest all three of the above-mentioned categories, throughout the year. Economists, for the Euro-crisis has already cast its envious eyes on Monaco’s tax policy; sports-personalities for they will continue to reside there; and fans because a new footballing ‘giant’ has emerged from its street — AS Monaco.
To be fair, AS Monaco are not a new club as such as the side, which play in France, have been league champions seven times. The club have also made their presence felt at European stage on and off, latest in 2004 when they finished runners-up to FC Porto in the Champions League. But despite this, AS Monaco were never included among the movers-and-shakers of European football, until now that is. Thanks to the Russian owner Dmitri Rybolovlev, newly-promoted Monaco are on a mad spending spree. Highly regarded Porto playmaker Joao Moutinho and striker James Rodriguez are in the kitty. More strikingly, the big fish, Atletico Madrid’s goal-machine Radamel Falcao is expected to complete the move anytime. The total expenditure on the players has been quoted as around £100 million and Rybolovlev has only started. Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney are also thought to be ‘top targets’. The French clubs are yet to figure out how to cope with the Qatar Royal family-financed Paris Saint-Germain and come next season they will have to battle with another money-bag, this time from across the border. The predicament forced all the French clubs to force through a condition that all Ligue 1-playing clubs should be registered in France, thereby taking out Monaco’s biggest attraction — no income tax for players. But Franco-Monegasque relationship isn’t that simple. As per the Principality’s special status, the condition may prove illegal.
For neutral football fans, especially in Asia, this is good news as Monaco’s rise would give birth to an intriguing battle in French football. One between Qatari-owned capital club PSG and Russian owned outsider Monaco. It’s showtime in... err.. France-Monaco.
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