LNB President Philippe Ausseur Defends Financial Aid to Monaco Players Amid Championship Crisis

The National Basketball League took an unprecedented step by stepping in financially to support AS Monaco Basket’s players—a move that raised eyebrows, but one President Philippe Ausseur has fully owned. In Ausseur’s view, the intervention was necessary to keep Monaco’s season from collapsing outright and to protect the competitive integrity of the league.

Emergency Intervention to Save the Season

The crisis began with very concrete alerts from those directly involved. “Élan Chalon called us very worried, knowing that Monaco didn’t want to come. The broadcasters also panicked a bit,” Ausseur explained. Behind that concern, a catastrophic scenario was taking shape—one that went well beyond a single missed game.

“The most important thing was avoiding the forfeit in Chalon, and then probably the one in Nanterre afterwards, because that would have been the end. Finished. No more championship for Monaco,” he said. For Ausseur, the danger extended far beyond one unplayed match. “It meant that the recovery plan became null and void. There was no more recovery plan, and everything fell apart.”

The turning point came through a videoconference requested by the players themselves. “They asked to have a video call with me, which they did, with Fabrice Jouhaud and Julie Campassens from the players’ union.” Ausseur views that exchange as decisive, as the players were finally given clear and honest information about their situation.

Players Left in Complete Uncertainty

The assessment of the players’ situation was blunt. “They were in complete confusion,” Ausseur said. “They expressed a lot of bitterness, particularly toward Oleksiy Yefimov (General Manager), because they felt he had lied to them.” The National Basketball League president was unequivocal about what would have followed without intervention: “If there hadn’t been a video call—very clearly—they would have gone on strike.”

Ausseur also wanted to be precise about the nature of the financial help. “This is not about giving money to Monaco. And it’s not about giving a definitive sum to the players,” he said. “It’s simply about making sure that those who haven’t been paid for more than two months can be temporarily helped.” The goal, he stressed, was straightforward: “Avoid a strike” and address a very real situation of distress. “They had the feeling of being completely abandoned.”

Temporary Aid with Repayment Expected

On the rumored figures, Ausseur moved quickly to lower the temperature. “This €500,000 number—I don’t even know if it will be paid. I don’t know who wanted to leak it,” he said. While the legal framework for routing payments through the players’ union still has to be set, the question of reimbursement is already on the table—and on that point, the message was firm. “It’s out of the question that this becomes a gift from the League.”

In Ausseur’s view, there are only two paths. “Either the players reimburse it once their arrears are paid, or the buyer does. But it’s out of the question for this to be definitive aid.” He closed with cautious optimism: “We probably bought time. We protected the upcoming games. And I hope, above all, that we protected the championship—so it can run normally through the end.” Without that intervention, he said flatly, “it would have been chaos.”