Until recently, Article 343.4 of the National Basketball League (LNB) regulations barely registered on the radar. It has now become one of the most contentious texts in French basketball, placing AS Monaco at the centre of a rapidly escalating standoff with the league.
The rule is blunt: any club that fails to pay its luxury tax is barred from taking part in the Betclic ÉLITE playoffs. Monaco currently owes €2.25 million under the tax, having exceeded the permitted 40 per cent salary cap threshold within its overall budget.
Time is now a critical factor. The Roca Team has just eight days to settle the outstanding amount before the sanction can be enforced. LNB president Philippe Ausseur has made clear there will be no wiggle room. Speaking to L’Équipe, he warned that the league would apply the regulations “fully and without hesitation”, explicitly confirming that playoff exclusion is on the table. According to Ausseur, the measure is not punitive but designed to preserve competitive balance and economic fairness across the championship.
Monaco was formally notified of the 2025–26 luxury tax assessment on 21 November 2025. In response, the club has lodged an appeal with the FFBB’s Appeals Chamber, requesting that the sanction be suspended while proceedings are ongoing. The club argues that it is unlikely the case will be resolved before 1 January 2026.
The dispute is the latest chapter in a long and often fraught relationship between Monaco and the LNB, dating back to the club’s return to Pro B in 2014–15. That season began with Monaco initially refused entry to the league, before eventually being admitted under a higher entry fee to offset its perceived fiscal advantages.
At the heart of the current legal battle is a disagreement over how the luxury tax should be calculated. Monaco’s lawyer, Xavier Le Cerf-Galle, has criticised the governance of the LNB, pointing out that the league’s executive committee is composed almost entirely of Betclic ÉLITE clubs—excluding Monaco—and that luxury tax revenues are redistributed among those same clubs, with the paying club excluded.
The tax itself was introduced in 2023, with Monaco the only club affected since its inception. The club is relying heavily on an agreement dated 5 September 2023, signed by Ausseur and LNB director-general Fabrice Jouhaud, which modified both the tax base and its calculation. In that letter, league officials stated the aim was to prevent the contribution from increasing “disproportionately” over time and confirmed that the revised framework would apply until the end of the 2025–26 season.
Despite that assurance, Monaco was later notified of a €952,771 tax bill for the 2024–25 season—nearly four times higher than the €258,330 it had anticipated. The club successfully challenged the figure before the FFBB Appeals Chamber, which ruled that the September 2023 agreement had created binding legal rights and should be applied.
That victory proved short-lived. On 5 March 2025, the LNB executive committee adopted new calculation methods, which Monaco claims increased its tax burden by 228 per cent. Le Cerf-Galle argues the move effectively nullifies the 2023 agreement and was adopted without the “exceptional circumstances” required under the regulations, rendering it legally flawed.
Since then, positions have hardened. The LNB has introduced the playoff exclusion rule for non-payment, signalling what it describes as the end of its patience. Monaco, for its part, has taken the matter to the Conseil d’État, filing a request to annul the league’s decision on grounds of abuse of power. A ruling is expected in the first quarter of 2026.
Following the league’s refusal last week to revise the €2.25 million demand, Monaco has once again appealed to the FFBB Appeals Chamber and has not ruled out further action before the Administrative Court.
In a statement, the club said it was awaiting both its summons and a decision on whether its appeal will have suspensive effect. Monaco insists it is simply seeking the application of the rules as they were formally set out in September 2023, along with regulatory stability and financial predictability—requests it says have so far gone unanswered.
With deadlines looming and legal proceedings multiplying, the standoff now threatens to spill directly onto the court, with Monaco’s playoff place hanging in the balance.
