Platini Slams ‘excessive’ £80m Ronaldo Transfer Fee
UEFA president Michel Platini has slammed the proposed £80m world record transfer of Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid labelling the deal as ‘excessive’ and ‘puzzling’.
The much speculated deal finally looks to have been resolved with United announcing that it has accepted a £80m fee from Madrid for the Portuguese star.
However Platini who has consistently spoken out against the excesses of the current transfer market was quick to pour scorn on the deal.
He said: ‘These excessive transfers are happening almost every day. It is very puzzling at a time when football faces some of its worst ever financial challenges.
‘These transfers are a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay and the concept of financial balance in our competitions.’
While no other details of the deal have been released, Madrid, who are hoping to confirm the signing within the next few days, are believed to be offering Ronaldo a salary of between £150,000 to £180,000 a week.
United said that its acceptance of the offer was unconditional and that the matter had to be concluded by 30th June at the latest.
Should the Ronaldo deal be rubber-stamped it would represent a £24m increase on the highest ever transfer – a deal signed earlier this week when Madrid unveiled Brazilian Kaka for a reported £56m, surpassing the previous world record fee of £45.6m, which Real also paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001.
