Home » Real Madrid in for a small payback?

Real Madrid in for a small payback?

By The Boy -

A rare guest piece (you lucky punters) from a HH reader, Andy B. Enjoy.

The footballing world dropped it’s jaw (eventually) as Tottenham finally gave in and sold Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a figure that varies from outlet to outlet, but is generally believed to have been in the region of €100m. The problem with nailing the exact figure seems to stem from the suggestion that Real have sought not upset their existing boy wonder, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Unless you’re a Real Madrid fan wanting to land a shiny new Meringues shirt with a big No#11 on the back, the hysteria has pretty much subsided. But it seems this could be only temporary.

The economic despair that has been hanging over much of Europe has hit some nations more severely than others. If there was a financial Group Of Death, then arguably, Spain would be in it.

The club is one of the biggest in the world with revenue streams to match its status. Whilst Tottenham may have sold Bale to Real Madrid for a handsome sum; who actually rustled up the money? Even if the payment is to be spread over an agreed period of time via promissory notes for example, these would obviously have to had been underwritten.  And what is for certain, is that Real Madrid did not have this class of money simply ‘laying about the place.’

David Bick of Square 1 Consulting is a well-known figure in the financial sector and also has extensive knowledge of the football sector, having been central to recent acquisitions of Manchester City and Aston Villa. Interviewed on Sky Sports News, he was far from impressed by the soundness of the Bale transaction.

When this collection of banks went bust, like they did here with RBS and Lloyds, they stepped in and effectively used taxpayers’ money to keep these banks afloat. They put it in one big pool which they now call Bankia and taxpayers’ money kept that pool afloat.

Those same Spanish taxpayers, and also us because the bailout money came through Europe, are the same people who have in a sense been led up the garden path and left in the lurch because of the financial crisis.

So to now see one of those banks being prepared to lend this money to a club that’s already heavily in debt is absolutely scandalous.

Real Madrid, in debt to a tune of about £500m, does it really make any sense to add on another £100m for what they paid for Bale? I don’t think it does.”

And now it appears that greater scrutiny is to follow the simple disgust of a respected analyst. Dutch politician Geert Wilders has tabled a Parliamentary question about this transfer to the Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

In essence, Bankia secured €19bn bail out money from Europe and the question is this; has €100m or indeed any of this money been used to buy a footballer?!

How far this will go is largely dependent upon how transparent the Spanish might be, if asked to explain events.

Tottenham meanwhile are in the clear. Their principle concern is finding a decent left back in the January transfer window.

[divider]

There will be a new comments ‘thingy’ installed later today with instructions, bear with me and please save any questions until after it’s done. Cheers.

Tags sliderhome
30 Comments
newest
oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Follow Us
Latest Newsletter Posts