Platini stands firm on Ronaldo transfer fee criticism

UEFA president Michel Platini on Wednesday stood by his view that the record 94 million euros which Real Madrid paid to sign Cristiano Ronaldo was “indecent” during a visit to the Spanish giants’ stadium.

“The amount seems indecent to me,” he told a news conference at the Santiago Bernabeu ahead of Real’s Champions League clash against AC Milan.

“But that does not bother me in the case that the club has the money to do it. And there is no problem with Real Madrid because they have the money to do it,” added Platini who was sitting beside Real president Florentino Perez.

The two men went out of their way to show that there was no bad blood between Real, which spent 250 million euros on new signings in the pre-season, and UEFA, which is seeking to curb splurges by clubs.

“Ties between UEFA and Real Madrid, and between the president of UEFA and the president of Real Madrid, are, and will always be, excellent,” said Perez.

Real was heavily criticized for the amount it paid to sign Ronaldo from Manchester United as well as the 65 million euros it dished out to sign Brazil’s Kaka from AC Milan.

At the time Platini called the transfers “a serious challenge to the idea of fairplay” while Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano said Real’s spending splurge runs the risk of pushing football clubs towards bankrupcy by inflating transfer fees.

Perez, who brought stars Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane to Real during his first term as the club’s president between 2000 and 2006, said Wednesday that the club has a record budget of 422 million euros in the 2009-10 season.