So, French football, do you really want to stop the world's top players from coming to Ligue 1? That is the question that Monaco have effectively put to the country's football authorities this week by agreeing to splash out around £100m on transfers despite still being banned, in theory, from taking part in Ligue 1 next season.

João Moutinho and James Rodríguez have joined from Porto, Radamel Falcao's move from Atlético Madrid looks set to be completed once he passes a medical, Ricardo Carvalho is in talks to enlist when his Real Madrid contract expires next month and, even though club officials insist their revamping will be "balanced", Monaco intend to lure several more high-profile players over the summer to a league that is more accustomed to losing its brightest talents.

"We want to build a beautiful team who play beautiful football," the Monaco sporting director Vadim Vasilyev told Nice-matin on Tuesday morning. The club from the principality may contribute little to France's tax coffers but can the country's football afford to shun them? The rise of Monaco under their majority owner, the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, has set practical and ethical riddles that French clubs are struggling to resolve. This burst of expenditure will focus their minds.

English football fans are familiar with the pro-and-con arguments about super-rich investors. The twist in the Monaco case is that the club that has just won Ligue 2 enjoys an added advantage over its rivals by dint of being based in a tax haven, a status that it has always had but which French clubs now find particularly grating in view of the soaring fiscal demands placed on them. The sense of unfairness led the clubs, via the Ligue Professionnel de Football (LFP), to take the unprecedented decision in March of restricting admission to Ligue 1 to clubs whose headquarters is located in France for tax purposes. This would force Monaco, participants in the French league for nearly a century, to change their status or forefeit the place in the top flight that they won by topping Ligue 2.

The ultimatum outraged Monaco. The French Football Federation stepped in to mediate. A compromise solution was put to the club in a meeting earlier this month, whereby Monaco would pay €200m (£170m) over six or seven years to persuade the other clubs to shelve their misgivings. A brazen hustle, reckoned Rybolovlev, who walked straight out of the room. Then Monaco launched legal proceedings with France's supreme court, declaring that the LFP's decision in March "violates several fundamental principles of French and European law, notably the principle of free movement, free competition, free access to sporting competitions, and also the Franco-Monégasque tax convention signed on the 18 February 1963".

Monaco are convinced they will win the case but it could take several months to reach a verdict, during which time they say they will hold no further negotiations unless the LFP suspends the threat to exclude them. Meanwhile, Monaco have begun buying players that will not only make them more fearsome but also make Ligue 1 more attractive to sponsors, TV companies and fans. "Are you sure you do not want that?" Monaco seem to be asking their rivals.

Monaco believe the ball is at their feet and if French clubs want a pass, then they had better wise up. France Football noted on Tuesday morning that none of the players Monaco have bought since the dispute erupted have come from French clubs; the magazine wondered whether this is part of a pointed strategy.

"Monaco initially planned to buy mainly from Ligue 1 in order to soften the stance of the clubs waging war on its privileges with a campaign based on demands for fiscal and social equality," claims France Football. "That idea might have appealed to some chairmen in choppy financial waters, as the wish list included [Serge] Aurier (Toulouse), [Rémy] Cabella (Montpellier), [Aurélien] Chedjou (Lille), [Sébastien] Corchia (Sochaux), [Maxime] Gonalons (Lyon), [Nicolas] Isimat-Mirin (Valenciennes) and Lisandro López (Lyon) ... However, Dmitry Ryboloblev seems to have adopted a more radical position following the deterioration of the relationship between the two parties. If recruiting exclusively from abroad turns out to be the new strategy, French clubs will not be able to count on Monaco to replenish their coffers."

Some chairmen would regard that as a major opportunity lost, notably those who, like Lyon's Jean-Michel Aulas, suggested earlier this month that Monaco should be admitted to Ligue 1 on the condition that they agree to play a quota of French players.

Monaco's sporting director, Vadim Vasilyev, denied that his club's dealings are designed to send a message to French clubs. "We are in contact with several interesting players in the league," he told Nice-Matin. "We would like to bring in some more [from France]. Our recruiters know this market well and there is always less integrating players from French clubs than those from other countries. But it is not easy, some clubs do not want to sell ... and others have the idea that Monaco will spend recklessly. That is not the case: we will only pay market value."

Vasilyev confirmed that one of the France-based players in whom Monaco are interested is their former centre-back Nicolas N'Koulou, who left for Marseille following Monaco's relagation in 2011. "We want to upgrade the current squad but we are not staging a revolution," he continued. "We want to bring in a few very good players to strengthen the team but it is essential that we keep a balance."

That balance will not include Nampalys Mendy, the 20-year-old linchpin of the team's midfield this season. Monaco's contract offer was not enough to satisfy the player dubbed "my Claude Makélélé" by manager Claudio Ranieri, so Mendy chose to accept a deal with Nice. "He is going to miss something huge," said Ranieri. Nice have nowhere near the financial muscle of Monaco but thanks to Euro 2016 they do, at least, have a new stadium, the Allianz Riviera, into which they will move next season – and which will be full every week with exuberant fans. It remains to be seen whether the same will be true of the Stade Louis II regardless of who Monaco sign.