Max Guazzini’s Stade Francais once more head the list of big spenders with a season’s budget of €21 – an increase of €3m - while Michelin-backed Clermont Auvergne roll in with a cool €18.9m – up €1.9m on last season.

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South west giants Stade Toulousain have a budget of €17m, which is the same as last year, but that doesn’t include income from the Heineken Cup, while Mourad Boudjellal’s Toulon have splashed the cash with a €2.5m increase taking them up to €16.5m.

That’s just €500,000 more than both Brive (up €3m) and Top 14 newcomers Racing-Métro 92.

Defending champions Perpignan have upped their budget by €1m (to €13m), while the Basque clubs of Biarritz (€14m) and Bayonne (€12m) have both opted for a €500,000 increase.

Indeed, only club throughout Top 14 has a budget this season of below €10m, and that is SCA Albi, who won promotion through the play-offs. Their prudence is entirely understandable after they were relegated in the previous season due to financial irregularities.

The club budgets reflect a buoyancy in French rugby built on a 12% increase in attendances last year and more of the same likely to follow this season. Eight matches have already been given the green light to be switched to alternative (bigger) ‘home’ grounds, with Stade Francais leading the way by moving five to the 80,000 capacity Stade de France.

Television revenue has also been increased, via the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), and wealthy club benefactors continue to underwrite ambitious player recruitment strategies.

Boudjellal’s deep pockets have funded a massive influx of 17 new players at Toulon alone, with Jonny Wilkinson’s high-profile signing being backed up the capture of fellow internationals such as Felipe Contepomi, Tom May, Jamie Robinson, Sebastien Bruno, Rory Lamont, Juan Martin Lobbe, Pierre Mignoni, Tonga Lea’aetoa and Christian Loamanu.

Guazzini, likewise, has bankrolled the signing of half a dozen new internationals at Stade Francais as they seek to make amends for a disappointing 2008/9, with English trio James Haskell, Tom Palmer and Ollie Phillips joined by France’s Julien Dupuy and Benjamin Kayser, and Scotland’s Hugo Southwell.

Daniel Derichebourg may have sold Brive – although he remains a financial backer – but not before the ambitious Limousin club had again recruited heavily in the off-season. Three more England internationals have been acquired – Riki Flutey, Jamie Noon and Shaun Perry – to join their growing Anglo-Saxon enclave, together with Kiwi winger Viliame Waqaseduadua.

Top 14 runners-up Clermont Auvergne may have been more restrained – in terms of numbers at least – but the players they have signed, but coach Vern Cotter appears to have overseen a quality control policy with five of their six new signings already having international status. France scrum-half Morgan Parra has arrived from Bourgoin, and fellow ‘bleu’ Lionel Faure was signed from Sale Sharks – together with former Scotland captain Jason White. Ex All Blacks scrum-half Kevin Senio comes in from Castres, along with ex-New Zealand league centre Tasesa Lavea, and the club continues to try and sign Springbok centre Jaque Fourie or a suitably skilled alternative.

Even Biarritz have brought in 12 new faces, although their policy appears to have been driven by signing some of the country’s most promising youngsters – such as La Rochelle’s Yann Fior, Clermont’s Fabien Alexandre, Stade Francais’ Benoit Guyot and Stade Toulousain’s Charles Gimenez. That’s not to say they’ve shied away completely from signing big names, with England World Cup winner Iain Balshaw arriving from Gloucester and France centre Arnaud Mignardi snapped up from Clermont.

Even Top 14 newcomers Racing-Metro 92 have got in on the apparent free-spending, with Jacky Lorenzetti underwriting the capture of international stars Lionel Nallet, Sebastien Chabal and Francois Steyn as they seek to make an immediate impact on their re-entrance to France’s elite.