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Day: 30 June 2023

Football: Key dates in AS Monaco’s 2023/24 Ligue 1 campaign

by: Luke Entwistle
30/06/2023
AS Monaco's Performance Centre, La Turbie

The calendar for the 2023/24 Ligue 1 season has been revealed. Monaco Life looks through the key dates in AS Monaco’s campaign.  

At present, Monaco’s calendar for next season is a lot less hectic relative to previous campaigns. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the Ligue de Football Professionnel has reduced the size of Ligue 1 from 20 teams to 18. As a result, the number of league games has reduced from 38 to 34. Secondly, the club failed to qualify for European competition for next season. However, with Toulouse FC’s participation in the UEFA Europa League being called into question, Les Monégasques could yet secure a backdoor route into European football.

Here are some of the key dates in the calendar:

13/08/23 – Monaco begin their campaign away to Clermont Foot. The club were a surprise package last season, with Pascal Gastien doing an impressive job in extracting the maximum from a side that were tipped for relegation.

20/08/23 – Les Monégasques’ first game at home will see RC Strasbourg Alsace come to the Stade Louis II. The club has recently been in the headlines after its takeover by BlueCo, who also own Premier League side Chelsea. Monaco did the double over the Alsace side last season, winning in spectacular fashion (4-3) in the Principality in early April.

24/09/23 – The first Côte d’Azur Derby will take place in Monaco. Nice come to town in late September and Les Monégasques will be hoping to produce a better performance than last season, when Les Aiglons scored three goals without reply on their way to a comfortable victory at a sodden Stade Louis II. The return match will take place in the Allianz Riviera on 11/02/24. 

01/10/23 – The arrival of Olympique de Marseille is always one of the most anticipated moments in any Ligue 1 season for Monaco. Their Mediterranean rivals always come in numbers and will likely fill the away end of the Stade Louis II, as they often do. The match will conclude an intense week of football in the Principality, which will see both of the club’s closest rivals come to town.

17/12/23 – The last match at the Stade Louis II of 2023 promises to be an exciting one. Olympique Lyonnais will be wanting to improve on recent seasons in 2023/24 and have ample firepower to cause Monaco problems.

14/01/24 – Will Still’s Stade de Reims will come to the Principality for the first match of 2024.

03/03/24 – Tickets are always in short supply when Paris Saint-Germain come to town. Despite winning back-to-back titles, PSG have failed to win at the Stade Louis II in their last two visits. Monaco have won both of those matches, scoring three goals on both occasions. One of the biggest questions is whether PSG forward Kylian Mbappé will make a return to his formative club. The France captain is being strongly linked with a departure this summer.

18/05/24 – The 2023/24 season concludes with FC Nantes’ visit to Monaco. The hope will be that, going into the match, Les Monégasques are in pursuit of silverware or at least a spot in European competition for the following season. The end-of-year calendar is slightly kinder to Monaco next season with the final game preceded by matches against Clermont and Montpellier. April, however, looks tricky with matches against Stade Rennais, Lille OSC and Lyon.

The exact timings of the fixtures will be decided closer to the time. Monaco’s 2023/24 calendar can be viewed in full here.

 

 

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Photo by Luke Entwistle, Monaco Life

Monaco making strides against money laundering per Moneyval reccommendations 

by: Stephanie Horsman
30/06/2023
monaco moneyval

After a January 2023 Moneyval report citing “needs improvement” landed on desks in Monaco, the Principality has been making big strides to heighten standards in the fights against money laundering and related crimes.  

It is called Bill No.1.077 and is Monaco’s 130-point draft bill to ensure that the Principality is internationally accepted as adhering to the best standards in the fight against money-laundering, terrorism financing and funding of illegal weapons.  

On 29th June, the National Council voted unanimously in favour of the bill, which represents the first part of several other forms of legislation that will help to make the Monegasque system as watertight as possible against these types of crimes.  

Established and reviewed in a rather short timeframe, the bill is a response to the Moneyval Committee’s January 2023 recommendations and shows the continued commitment the Principality has on this issue.  

One of the most significant provisions on Bill No. 1.077 is the creation of an independent administrative authority to be called the Monegasque Financial Security Authority. This will replace the current entity, Financial Circuits Information and Control Service (SICCFIN), which has been on the case thus far.  

This new organisation will be “endowed with appropriate resources and means, [and] will have three branches: financial intelligence, investigations, and the imposition of sanctions”.  

WHAT’S NEXT? 

More bills will be coming up for a vote in the National Council in the not-too-distant future, including Bill No. 1.078. This is a refined extension of the current measures to stop any financing of terrorists and illegal weapons within Monaco’s borders.  

 

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Photo credit: Monaco Communications Department / Michael Alesi  

IMSEE meets with the Monaco Economic Board to talk data

by: Stephanie Horsman
30/06/2023
imsee report

The Monaco Economic Board were treated to a preview of the newly released IMSEE report into life in the Principality that features more in-depth data on employment and the Monegasque economy than ever before.  

The director of Monaco’s statistical agency IMSEE, Alexandre Bubbio, met with members of the Monaco Economic Board (MEB) at the Novotel Hotel on 22nd June. He introduced the latest edition of the annual report, now considerably substantial in its breadth of data and topics, with particular reference to the new ground covered in the 2023 edition.  

A separate chapter is now devoted to employment, giving a clear picture of the situation within the Principality, as well as a section focusing on the 12 sectors of economic activity that is simplified with infographics and enhanced by data tables for more in-depth coverage.  

An overview of the economy 

Bubbio and other IMSEE representatives then provided the MEB members present with a short overview of the Monegasque economy.  

Alexandre Bubbio speaks to Monaco Economic Board members. Photo credit: MEB / Carte Blanche

In brief, public finances are in good shape with a budget surplus of €32.2 million in 2022. Over the decade, only 2020 was in deficit, and this was explained by the pandemic. Other indicators show the same trend of a strong post-health crisis rebound and a positive evolution over the last 10 years.

In that period, the GDP has increased by 47.3%, the turnover of the Principality has risen by 32.2%, and the average price per square meter in property sales is up by an enormous 60.6%. 

The private sector employed 65,529 people in 2022. International trade, excluding France, grew by an annual average of 5.4% over 10 years.  

The new interactive dashboard available on the IMSEE, which neatly summarises data on foreign trade country-by-country, amongst other functions, was also highlighted at the event.  

 

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Photo credit: Carte Blanche/ MEB