Football in Monaco

Football in Monaco is one of the leading sports in the small Principality of Monaco, enoying large popularity alongside moter racing and yachting.

International football

Monaco, is almost unique amongst sovereign European states not to be a UEFA member or have a national team competing in the qualifiars for the European Championships or FIFA World Cup. The cause of this may be the historically close ties to France - but this is also true of Andorra while they have a separate team. It may be purely because Monaco have never applied to join UEFA, despite fulfilling all the required criteria. In recent years there has reportly been more interest in achieving this status.

The Monaco national team instead tend to play small-scale matches again non-FIFA members. They play their matches at the 18,500 seat Stade Louis II stadium named for a former Prince.

Club Football

Football in Monaco is dominated by AS Monaco FC who were founded in 1919 and play in the French League which they have won on seven occasions, also winning five French Cups in the process. The club have traditionally been heavily backed by the monarchy, with large financial support which helps the club compete with teams from much larger cities. The club also play at the Stade Louis II where average attendances have sometimes been as low as 5,000 demonstrating the need for financial aid to compete with teams who draw crowds several times that figure.

In 2004 they were runners-up in the UEFA Champions League widely regarded as the most prestigious club tournament in football. Their success, and the large financial subsidy they received has caused occasional bad feeling and it has been proposed, often by rival clubs in Ligue 1, that Monaco should not be allowed to qaulify for Europe competition from the French League, thereby taking a place allocated for a French team. With some even suggesting they should be expelled from French Football altogether.

One compromise that has been suggested is that Monaco continue to play in the French League system, but take part in a yearly qualifying tournament to earn the right to represent Monaco in European competition, as teams in Canada do by the Canadian Champions League. This solution would require the Principallity to gain full or associate member status of UEFA first.

uper Cup & UEFA Draw

Every year Monaco hosts the European Super Cup between the winners of the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup which offers the Principallity a high profile game. Monaco also plays hosts to the draw for the Champions League.