Former Chelsea player's new club could face over €1m fine after manager decision
A former Chelsea player could cost his new club over €1 million in fines ahead of being appointed as their new manager.
Ex-Blues left-back Filipe Luis, who played for Chelsea between 2014 and 2015, has forged a successful career as a head coach with Brazilian giants Flamengo.
Having initially coached their U20 side, he was given the senior job in September 2024 and has guided the club to seven trophies since then.
They include the 2025 Copa Libertadores - the South American equivalent of the Champions League - and the FIFA Challenger Cup.
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Flamengo also reached the final of last year's FIFA Intercontinental Cup, losing on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain after a 1-1 draw.
Luis has been coveted by a number of European clubs this summer, including Bayer Leverkusen and Crystal Palace, while he was also briefly linked with a return to Chelsea before their appointment of Xabi Alonso.
However, Monaco are set to win the race for the Brazilian and are expected to shortly announce his appointment.
Read more: Chelsea manager target holds talks with another Premier League club in move no-one saw coming
The 2017 Ligue 1 champions sacked former West Brom defender Sebastien Pocognoli at the end of the season after they missed out on Champions League qualification.
One major hurdle for clubs to jump over in negotiations with Luis is the fact that he only possesses a CONMEBOL coaching licence, and not the UEFA Pro Licence required to manage in top-tier domestic and continental competitions in Europe.
Sky Sports Germany's Florian Plettenberg reports that Bayer Leverkusen pulled out of the running to appoint the former Atletico Madrid left-back for that exact reason, as they were not willing to pay fines of up to €25,000 every time Luis managed a match.
Monaco, though, are said to be willing to pay those fines - though are still hoping to reach an agreement with UEFA over an exemption.
If the exemption is not granted, Luis must wait until September 2027 - totalling three years of managerial experience - in order to be permitted to take charge of matches without a Pro Licence.
UEFA have also been known to punish managers who coach without the correct qualifications in the past, and fined Irish club Dundalk €50,000 back in 2020 over a rule breach.
But if the €25,000 amount is consistently applied over the course of the upcoming Ligue 1 season without an exemption, Monaco could incur fines of up to €950,000 - without factoring in any domestic cup games that could take the amount into the seven-figure region.
Who else has managed without a UEFA Pro Licence?
Infamously, former Reims boss Will Still was fined €25,000 after every game in charge of the French club.
Most people with a Twitter account active around the time of 2023 will probably recall that Still didn't possess a UEFA Pro Licence in the early months of what was his first managerial job in French football.
He had initially been appointed as caretaker manager in October 2022 following the departure of Oscar Garcia, and recently explained to The Overlap how even getting accepted on to a Pro Licence course is far less than straightforward.
"The players go to the board and say, 'Will's got to stay'," he said.
"So the board come down to me and say, 'We're delighted, we're unbeaten in five. Just keep going'.
"And I was like, 'Fine. Great. I haven't got a Pro Licence though'. I had my A Licence, the UEFA A, because that's the highest you can get... but to get on the Pro Licence course, you've got to shift a few mountains to get it.
"It's difficult to get on it. I got refused by the French federation on their course, so I had to go back to Belgium and do that.
"Every week you're playing against, at that time, PSG had Messi, Mbappe, Neymar, Verratti in midfield, Sergio Ramos. So you're playing against top opposition players every week. It was like being in a dreamland."
Ryan Smart