Food For Thought: Is Michel Platini Right To Blast Real Madrid?

Michel Platini's Real Madrid Blast - Justified?

It's Real Madrid's money and they can do whatever they want to do with it and that includes spending over €200 million on just four players. So goes the argument and well, on the surface apparently no one can argue against that.

Only someone can (at least morally) and someone is doing. UEFA president Michel Platini blasted Real Madrid's spending spree in an exclusive interview to Goal.com wherein he expressed his disdain at "the inflation [in transfers]" and said that it "upsets" him.

Just to make sure that he is not misinterpreted as taking a dig at the Premier League, the former Juventus legend said, "Obviously, I'm referring to Real Madrid. But it doesn't bother me if a club spend €40 million on a player as long as they have the funds."

That's the clause: "as long as they have the funds". Which Madrid have, or at least they claim to.

Real Madrid's domestic TV rights are worth a reported €1.1 billion stretched over a period of seven years, according to a contract signed with MediaPro in 2006 -  the richest TV deal in the world. They have millions of fans worldwide and this earns them money from merchandize as well. Then there's the regular sponsorship deals and the fact that Real Madrid are not a PLC and are run by its members or socios who play a major role in electing the president. The president, though, cannot invest his own money into the club and has the simple job of running the club.

Yet there are flaws, or rather apparent flaws. Madrid, like a number of other European giants, are said to be in massive debt, which is why Madrid president Florentino Perez is so eager and so willing to recoup the €160 million or so spilled over Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo. According to reports, most of this debt is owed to local banks and since in Spain, at least in the political and economic circle, Madrid enjoy an almost divine existence, these banks do not dare enforce Madrid to pay back the money anytime soon.

It is understandable that Michel Platini is a traditionalist who believes in the aestheticism of the game. And most of his ideas, if not all, actually do make sense, like the 6+5 rule or the more expansive approach towards the Champions League by making it more accessible to champions of the various European domestic leagues. Of course, he, like many football followers, would be wondering how and from where Madrid get so much money but there isn't a concrete answer to this.

What Platini says about Real Madrid inflating the transfer market is true to a considerable extent but remember, this is not the first time that the Blancos have spent big: in his first reign as the Madrid president, Perez signed Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham et al for huge sums of money.

The difference between then and now is that then Perez made his expensive Galactico signings over a period of six years; now he is taking all the golden eggs from the goose at once. And the goose is still alive.

Is David Beckham's Love Affair With The MLS Coming To An End?

The boy-next-door who became the world's most famous footballer and the world's most recognizable sports-face and played for the two biggest clubs on the planet decides to go to what some cruelly describe as the "footballing tundra", gets greeted like a Hollywood star, plays for some time with mixed results, returns to Europe for a restricted period of time, oversteps that restriction apparently against the will of his employer, goes back to the "footballing tundra" but hints that returning to Europe isn't an alien idea.

You would be forgiven to believe that David Beckham's infatuation with making the MLS a bigger and better league and making football a bigger sport in the USA is in its final stretch, that Beckham has realized - if he at all needed to - that playing in the USA in front of a bunch of spectators who call football 'soccer' is not as glamorous or fulfilling as playing at Old Trafford, the Bernabeu or the San Siro.

After all, this is the man who is used to play at the highest level of football, who has won the Champions League, who is probably still the best free-kick taker in the world; and let's not kid ourselves: for all the progress and development the MLS has made, it is still miles behind from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and even the Bundesliga. 

And just as Beckham is seemingly falling out of love with football or 'soccer' in the USA, the American football or soccer loving public too appears to be falling out of Beckhamania. Beckham's missing out on the first 17 games of the US season due to the extension of his loan deal at Italian giants AC Milan did not make LA Galaxy fans much happier.

Moreover, Beckham's performance for the American side has been mixed and the 34-year-old actually played below par for quite a while for Galaxy. Many Americans feel that they can actually do without the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder.

And then there was this rather ugly confrontation with a Galaxy fan.

So is it time for David Beckham to find a new club? Well, he still has a contract with LA Galaxy.....

Subhankar Mondal