According to consistent media reports, AS Monaco is on the verge of hiring coach Filipe Luis—a move that could apparently entail ongoing financial risks.
The coaching merry-go-round in Europe is spinning faster and faster as the World Cup approaches. In the Bundesliga, only Bayer 04 Leverkusen is currently still searching for a new coach. Club officials have made several unsuccessful attempts. Their top choice, Andoni Iraola, who is leaving AFC Bournemouth this summer, is on the verge of signing with Liverpool FC.
Leverkusen also took a very concrete interest in Filipe Luis. The former Flamengo coach, who was suspended in early March immediately after an 8-0 rout, was on Bayer’s shortlist. However, at the end of May, L’Equipe reported that Filipe Luis had reached an agreement with AS Monaco, which—unsurprisingly—subsequently relieved Sébastien Pocognoli—the successor to the sacked Adi Hütter—of his duties on Monday evening after just 38 competitive matches.
The legal situation was not clear enough for Leverkusen
As Sky now reports, Filipe Luis preferred the Monaco option because the club from the principality did not dwell on the lack of a UEFA Pro license. The Monegasques are reportedly prepared to pay a fine of up to 25,000 euros per game upon his appointment. The Ligue 1 club is still hoping for a special exemption.
For Filipe Luis’s CONMEBOL license to be reliably recognized, he would have had to have worked as a head coach for three years with that license. Since this was not the case and the question of whether the Brazilian would actually have been allowed to work in Leverkusen was not entirely resolved, Bayer 04 did not want to enter into an agreement with the former professional just yet. After all, there was a possibility that the issue might not be definitively resolved by paying the €25,000 fine per game.
Without the licensing issue, Filipe Luis would now be Bayer’s coach
Incidentally, without this uncertainty, the Bundesliga club would have signed Filipe Luis as coach just to be on the safe side. Because the risk remained that another top club might still intervene regarding their preferred candidate, Iraola—as Liverpool FC did over the weekend.
