It appears that the billionaire bug that first hit English football has well and truly hit France.
Following the takeovers of Chelsea and Man City by billionaires in the last 10 years, Paris St Germain and now AS Monaco in Ligue 1 have been taken over by billionaires.
PSG are now riding high in this year's Ligue 1 after many seasons of mediocrity.
Russian billionaire, Dmitry Rybolovlev, is hoping to do the same for fallen giants, AS Monaco who are now struggling to survive in French football's 2nd tier.
AS Monaco have been crowned French champions 7 times, the last time in 2000 and made the Champions League final in 2004 after knocking out big-spending Chelsea in the semifinals.
The man called the Potash King in Russia hopes to bring that same form and glory back as well as turn the principality in the middle Cote d'Azur more well known for its royal family and annual Formula 1 race into one of France's footballing powers.
While this move may not be popular with France's other clubs, this could be the sort of financial push French domestic football needs in order to compete with the likes of the English, Italian, Spanish and German leagues. The takeovers of Chelsea and Manchester City have actually been good for the Premier League enabling more clubs to be open to foreign investment as well as opening the race for the title - a once 2 horse race is on the verge of becoming a 6 horse race.
French football has been quite competitive in recent times after the dominance of Lyon early in the century. It should remain competitive even with PSG and Monaco now bankrolled by billionaires - and Monaco's time will almost certainly be at least 2 seasons away given they are not likely to push for promotion this season. Hopefully, it might even keep more of France's best playing in the country too.
It is said money doesn't buy you happiness. But in football, it almost usually does.
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