Platini: Real Madrid spending "not normal"
Reuters - Thursday 02 July 2009, 20:47
* Platini says does not approve of Real spending spree
* Comments come in interview with L'Equipe
* Real's Valdano defends club's business model
(adds Valdano comments)
PARIS, July 2 (Reuters) - There is something "not normal"
about the huge sums of money spent by clubs like Real Madrid in
the transfer market, UEFA president Michel Platini was quoted as
saying on Thursday.
Real took their recent spending spree to around 215 million
euros ($303 million) when they signed French forward Karim
Benzema from Olympique Lyon on Wednesday.
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 an interview in Thursday's French
sports daily 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 Naples (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 ?"
Real's director general Jorge Valdano, asked about Platini's
comments at a news conference later on Thursday, noted that the
club was the richest in the world by revenue and had the
capacity to generate a lot of cash.
"The strength and efficiency of this business was shown in
the past and we will carry on doing it because this is a team
that cannot aspire to be mediocre," said Valdano, who was
standing next to 15-million-euro signing Albiol.
"It's a team that historically has aspired to lead and it's
impossible to do that without some of the best players in the
world."
(Additional reporting by Iain Rogers in Madrid)
(Reporting by Patrick Vignal, editing by Ed Osmond and Sonia
Oxley; To query or comment on this story email
sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)