"[54] In January 2014, Monaco agreed to pay the governing body of French football, the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), a one-off voluntary payment of €50 million to remain exempt from a ruling by the LFP that its clubs must have their head offices located in France. Based in the tax haven of Monaco, the club managed to avoid the effects of tax increases in neighboring France. Rybolovlev and the head of the French league, Noël Le Graët, had initially failed to find an agreement over the matter and Rybolovlev had initiated legal action against the league which was later dropped. The €50 million figure was calculated by the league as the amount saved by Monaco a result of their unique location.
Rybolovlev also owns an estate in Saint-Tropez on the Cote d'Azur in the south of France, houses in Gstaad, Switzerland, and used to own property in Geneva and Paris with his former wife. [125][126][127] In 2013, the property purchases were contested by Rybolovlev's estranged wife, Elena, during the couple's divorce proceedings. [128] United