French League budgets revealed: ASVEL, Monaco lead by a mile / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: JDA Dijon Credit JDA Dijon

The French Basketball League (LNB) released Friday the budgets and payrolls of the 18 participating teams for the 2021-2022 season.

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Two teams present impressive figures: ASVEL Villeurbanne, the defending French champions, and AS Monaco who last year managed to win the 7DAYS EuroCup and get in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague on a 7,500,000 euro budget.

According to L'Equipe, Monaco will possess a budget of 14,1 million euros for the upcoming campaign, an increase of 87%. This is also the second-biggest budget of all teams that have ever competed in the French Pro A League.

"There has been a significant increase in the partnership, especially with Fedcom," explained Oleksiy Yefimov, General Manager of Monaco. Per the French sports daily, they will travel by charter to most of the EuroLeague away games.

However, ASVEL remains n°1 with just over 15 million euros (compared to 11.8 the previous season).Elan Bearnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez also jumped from 4.7 million euros to 7.8 million euros in total budget, inflated by their new American investors.

On the other hand, three teams saw their numbers fall: Le Portel (-5%), Orléans (-3%) and Cholet (-1%).

Credit LNBAs far as players' salaries are concerned, AS Monaco lead the pack, with 6.7 million euros (including 1.3 for Mike James alone). Last year, the sum amounted to only 2.6 million. The EuroLeague newcomers have thus increased their payroll by 150%, while ASVEL is quite far, at 3.9 million euros. Metropolitans 92 come in third with 2.6 million.

The LNB reported that French clubs had suffered from the health crisis last year. In 2020-2021, average budgets fell by 7%. This season, they are on the rise by 16%. The average player's salary increased by 20% compared to the previous season.

In Pro B, France's second division which starts on October 15, recently relegated from Pro A Chalon-sur-Saone, have the highest budget (5 million euros) and payroll (1.4 million) - numbers which seem unthinkable in most of Europe.

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