Eurosport - Thu, 02 Jul 14:41:00 2009
UEFA president Michel Platini has slammed Real Madrid's spending spree, saying the sums of money paid for players are "not normal" and questioning whether they actually have the money.
Real took their recent spending to around 215 million euros when they signed French striker Karim Benzema from Lyon.
Benzema will follow Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, Brazilian playmaker Kaka and Spanish defender Raul Albiol to the Bernabeu Stadium.
"Does the club making such enormous transfers have the money or not?," Platini asked in L'Equipe.
"The Ronaldo transfer, personally, puts a question to me, but then, if Real has a guarantee from banks...
"Personally, I can't understand that you can spend 90 million euros on a player," Platini added.
"But I remember the transfer of (Diego) Maradona from Barcelona to Napoli (in 1984). It must have been for the equivalent of 6.5 million euros and people already found it indecent.
"I think there's something not normal in there. I don't like all that, and even less the fact that today, contracts are being signed only to be breached.
"But then again, if the clubs have the money, what can I do ?"
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Comment 32 - 51 of 51
LOL, madrid surely have lots of debt. Perez would DIE IN POVERTY!!!
Oh, and a message to all Madrid Fans: The real test comes when the players play. Signing them is EASY, but seeing whether they will play as a team is DIFFICULT. Good luck, and if u ask me, they probably get owned by barca.
Real is the best team in this world, hahahahaha this is the best joke, which world ? do u call madrid is the world or what. do u have a tv or shall i buy u 1, are u still crying about the 60's when they won few champions league when there were nobody is playing, do u call real is a team or football club. What every body now is real should play anything except football, they pay these amount of money to compete with others, they steal the players because they steal the money as well. Soon they will be in second division. bye bye real, bunch of animals trying to be football players.
they are one of they richest teams in the world so face it mr platini, the times have changed as well
Comment 42. What do you mean englsh troops. Surely you must mean BRITISH troops
with a bit of luck barca will still ram it up them!!!
who told u they wont have result?why are u people being jealous and scared for all i know, real is the best team in the world..take it or leave it
and afterall it is a game and if a club wants to pay millions for a player why not, but there should be a ballance between teams, not what is happening now. and shut the f*** up with your troops in christmas land. if your so into it why didn't u join the military? or if they are so bothered of that why did they choose that career? there are actors that earn 20 mil a movie. and lots of billioners out there, and there are homeless people in africa that are starving and all you can come up with is the army that protects you from what?! from being attacked cause you help U.S.A. steal from their land? well then you deserve it! world is not fair, there are people that wipe their butts with hundred dollar bills and ones that don't know how one looks like. this is not the problem here
i hate this guy and blatter. but there is a point: i mean transfers should take place, but when a team puts 250 million dollars in the bussines just to buy 4-5 players it is abnormal. let's say a big move per season is not that bad, but when you have 3 big names joining a team you can see how f""""d up the things are. and also, teams that don't want to sell are then forced to sell unwillingly. you never see a spanish team having trouble financially, only the english and italian ones. either the italian and british government should be behind the teams more or there we should have a salary cap all over, that way we won't have a ronaldo going to madrid for cash, or a kaka leaving milan to help the team with their debts. you see great players developing at some teams and after they are bought at the peak of their career buy monster clubs (ronaldo to madrid) fabregas wants to rejoin barca later, why did he even come to arsenal? it's unfair having to sell your best players after all the effort and risks you've put in their development. teams like chelsea and real madrid ruin the game. barcelona it's the best example of a football club as it should be, even if they try to steal fabregas.
Come on Platini, This is the simple law of supply and demand. As long as they are more people to watch it wil be more money thrown into the sport. You compare diego maradona 30 years ago, and guess what inflation is everywhere and for every product including soccer player. if you want to limit the amount of spending and make team more competitive overall. just implement a salary cap as it is done in the US for every sport. I t will always be teams richer than others, do not hate thats the way it is. I just hope real investment pay off.
The way football is these days its rediculous why pay someone over £100,000 to kick a ball in a net and bonus, what about all the british troops that are giving there lives to protect this country from terriosts in afganistan, shouldn't they be the ones that should be on that type of money £80,000,000 for Ronaldo, £62,000,000 for kaka works out ronaldo is on £66 a second,for that money we could supply the equipment and supplies to English troops in Afganistan.Its bluddy stupid and something needs to be done and give that type of money who deserve it like the british forces not frank Lampard
The biggest problem with tossers like Platini and Blatter coming out and moaning about the degradtion of football and how it is being destroyed by money is that they are the very people leading it that way! Blatter sells the World Cup to the highest bidder every four years and gets paid way too much for it! Football needs less money-men, third parties, board members and all the @#$% that goes with them.
Salary cap, transfer fee cap, squad wage cap.
sidman612, The 6+5 rule failed the voting last summer. That rule would reduce the pool of talent available to the clubs. Big clubs would never want to limit themselves when they know that they are the only one who can afford world class international players. Also, because these clubs are business from different countries, they are under different laws. So there are a lot of legal work just to get every clubs in Europe to conform to a rule.
Personally, i think Real Madrid's new 'elite' team will end in tears. I mean, David Beckham was one of the best at Manchester United, and playing well for England, signed for Real, and now he's made L A Galaxy famous. Not for it's football. Now it's the same with C. Ronaldo, the reason that he was so good at Manchester United was that he was able to show off, do things that other members of the squad couldn't. His career will go downhill with the competition from Kaka.
personally i think Pratini is a thanker with a W not a TH ,, he is extremely jealous ,, what a T WAT
I don't believe it,PLATINI has actually spoken out against another club other than MAN CITY,about time he had. Also,its about time U.E.F.A. got to grips with clubs and there spending powers and seperated them from the poor and those also in heavey debt like Real Madrid(500m-700m euros),Manchester Utd(£700m) and Liverpool(£400m) who should be made to pay back all the money they owe first before actually being able to make any signings,this would enable a stable footballing community with commitment helping there club keep within means and not relying on banks or other.I disagree with what city have bid for certain players in recent months,particular kaka £100m,how rediculous
that is for someone who went for £56m eventually,Mr Cooke and co,think first and get into reality!
Well theres a big suprise the barcelona fan is upset with the spending power of real madrid the big rivals I wonder why???
i dont know about this cause u know the old `galacticos' that perez signed few years ago didnt do much favour for them like roberto carlos,ronaldo,figo,beckham all left them after having a very bad time there except for zidane which i think is the only good signing but he is retired. so what the hell madrid?
Lol . U don't know nothing. Banco Santander one of the biggest banks in Europe Loaned Real the money cause they presented a fezable plan for making profit. By the way Real has 500 debts before they made the 200 mil loan soo u see how big they are? The Real Madrid brand is worth billions in comparison to Man utd Chelsea or Arsenal .
Any1 who believes that Manu are similar to madrid is a moron!!! Manu have never spent more than £33m on a player and even then, they only bought 3 players for that kind of money after winning everything there is to win!! This shows that manu u are a well structured business which earns and then spends... Madrid have a backing from caja madrid (bank) which Franko set up in early 60's,.. well imagine if clubs in UK could write off their debt through banks like HSBC or Barclays lol
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