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Association Sportive de Monaco Football Club (commonly referred to as AS Monaco or simply Monaco) is

aFrench-registeredMonaco-basedfootball club.[2]The club was founded in 1924 and plays in Ligue 1,the

top tier ofFrench football.The team plays its home matches at theStade Louis II inFontvieille.Monaco is

managed byClaudio Ranieri andcaptained byric Abidal.

Though based in Monaco, the club is regarded as a French club,as the club plays in theFrench footballleague system,and because the principality of Monaco is not a member ofUEFA.[3][4]Monaco is one of the

mostsuccessful clubs in France, having won sevenleague titles and fiveCoupe de France trophies. The

club has also regularly competed inEuropean football having been runners-up in theUEFA Cup Winners'

Cup in1992 and theUEFA Champions League in2004,respectively.

Monaco enjoyed success in the 1970s and late 1980s during the managerial tenures ofLucien

Leduc andArsne Wenger,during which the club was amongst the leading lights of European football.

Monaco's traditional colours are red and white, and the club is known as Les Rouge et Blanc (English: The

Red and White). Monaco is also a member of theEuropean Club Association. In December 2011, two-

thirds of the club was sold to an investment group led by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.[5]With

Rybolovlev's financial backing, the club quickly returned toLigue 1 and brought in several top-ratedplayers, includingRadamel Falcao,Joo Moutinho,James Rodrguez,Ricardo Carvalho,ric

Abidal andJrmy Toulalan.

AS Monaco FC was founded on 23 August 1924 as a unification of numerous local clubs based in France

and theprincipality.The club's early years were spent in the amateur regional divisions of the Provence-

Alpes-Cte d'Azurregion,rising rapidly between the leagues in the 1920s. In 1933, Monaco were invited

by theFrench Football Federation to turn professional. The Mongasques' first year ofsecond division

footballended in failure however, as they were relegated to the amateur leagues the following year. By

1948, Monaco re-acquired its professional status and returned to the French second division; they

subsequently consistently finished in its upper echelons, with this sustained effort resulting in promotion to

the Frenchfirst division for the first time in 1953.

In 1960, Monaco's first iconic coach,Lucien Leduc,led the club to its first professional trophy, theCoupe

de France,beatingSaint-tienne 42 inextra time.This initial success was bettered in the following year

with the club winning theFrench Championship for the first time in its history, qualifying for theEuropean

Cup.Leduc subsequently led the club to its first League and Cup Double in 1963. Upon Leduc's departure

in 1963, Monaco endured a barren run, entrenched in the middle half of the league for the best part of the

next decade and alternating between the first and second divisions after 1963. In 1975, Jean-Louis

Campora, son of former president Charles Campora, became chairman of the club. In his second season,

he brought back Leduc, who immediately won the club promotion to the first division and won them the

championship the following year in 1978. Leduc subsequently left the club again in 1979, to be succeeded

byLucien Mller andGrard Banide,both of whom were unable to halt the club's decline.

The early 1980s saw a steady stream of successes in national competitions. Monaco won a title almost

every other year; theCoupe de France in 1980 and 1985, theFrench Championshipin 1982, wasCoupe

de France finalist in 1984. In the 198586 season, Monaco hammeredBordeaux 90, one of the biggest

wins in club history.[6]

Disappointingly for Monaco fans, the club could not translate its domestic leadership into European

success. Up to this point, Monaco had never passed the first round of any European competition. Monaco

lost toDundee United (1981)CSKA Sofia twice (1982 and 1984) andUniversitatea Craiova.[7]

In 1986, famedAjax managertefan Kovcs, who succeededRinus Michels and honed histotal

football ideals with the Dutch champions, came out of a three-year "retirement" to manage Monaco, but

even he could not bring them success. With the club facing a second barren spell, they signed legendary

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futureArsenal managerArsne Wenger, who had hitherto been relatively unknown,

managingNancy without much success. Wenger's reign saw the club enjoy one of its most successful

periods, with several inspired signings, including future legendsGeorge Weah,Glenn Hoddle,Jrgen

Klinsmann, andYouri Djorkaeff. Youth team policies produced future World Cup winnersEmmanuel

Petit,Lilian Thuram,andThierry Henry.Under Wenger, they won the league in his first season in charge

(1988) and the Coupe de France in 1989 and 1991, with the club consistently competing in the latter

stages of the European Cup and regularly challenging for the league title.[8]The club could have had even

greater success in this period, as it emerged in 1993 that bitter rivals Marseille had indulged in match fixing

and numerous improprieties, a view that Wenger had long held.[8]In 1994, after being blocked by the

Monaco board from opening discussions with German powerhouseBayern Munich for their vacant

managerial post after being shortlisted for the role, Wenger was released from the club, several weeks

after the post had already been filled.[8][9]

After Wenger's departure, the club went on to record two further league championships; underJean

Tigana in1997 and underClaude Puel in2000.However as the decade came to an end, rumours were

surfacing that the club was facing numerous financial difficulties. In 2003, these financial problems came to

a head. Despite finishing second in the league, the club was relegated to Ligue 2 by the French

Professional League for amassing a 50 million ($68 million) debt . [10]Whilst this was reduced on appeal to

a ban on purchasing players, it was enough to force President Jean-Louis Campora, who had been in

charge for 28 years, to step aside. He was replaced by Pierre Svara, an administrator considered to be

close to the Principality's royal family but with no footballing experience.[11]

The following season saw remarkable success on the field, given the clubs financial strife. The team,

coached by former French national team captainDidier Deschamps and featuring stalwarts such

asFernando Morientes,Ludovic Giuly, Jrme Rothen, andDado Pro, finished third in Ligue 1 and

enjoyed a remarkable run to the final of theUEFA Champions League, beatingReal

Madrid andChelsea along the way. However despite the on-field success, the 200304 season was the

club's worst financial year in its history. Within 12 months Deschamps had left as coach and Svara had

been replaced by Michel Pastor.[

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