Monaco

Monaco 2014-17 GK, matchworn/prepared

The template isn’t a bad one, with the concentric circles expanding out from the logo. Despite their limited funds, the Monegasque FA even managed to centralise their logo in it properly, which can’t be said of all the teams to have used it… The logo being circular itself also helps with this. The lack of colour to the shirt except for the logo does make it feel a little washed out, however, and there really isn’t a lot else to talk about here. Alright, but nothing to write home about.

Used only in friendlies, as Monaco are wont to do, it is hard to narrow down much more information. They managed a win and a draw with Vatican City (2014 & 2017), both reasonable results, but other matches were played that are tricky to identify. Limited activity, but any activity is great to see from them.

These days seemingly defunct, Monaco have rarely been an active side. Often restricted to a friendly a year, they played regularly from 2000 to 2014, with activity starting to drop off from then onwards. They’ve played a number of smaller club sides as well as teams such as Kosovo, Gibraltar, The Vatican and several of the French regional non-FIFA sides. Results have been fairly mixed, as expected, but several have been thoroughly respectable. An extremely limited player pool means they tend to struggle against more established opposition, however, and their 2-2 draw against Gibraltar would be highly unlikely to be replicated. They did compete for a time in the local 7-a-side league, but information is limited and they started to struggle to fulfil their fixtures. Astonishingly, they did compete in beach soccer, in 2004, joining the Euro Beach Soccer League for a singular season. Placed in the inaugural Division C season, Monaco would start off getting annihilated 12-1 by Hungary, have a walkover against Slovenia but finish off with a respectably narrow 4-2 loss to Greece. Slovenia’s withdrawal amusingly meant that they finished above Sweden.

It is hard to see a path for Monaco in the future. With no formal support from the Prince and his government combined with an ageing playerbase with extremely limited replacement, there are significant worries for the near future. I hope to see them play again, but it has been some years…