Real Madrid’s record bid of £80 million (US$131 million) for Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo is “excessive,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said yesterday.
“I don’t know if I am the most suitable person to be talking about signings by Real Madrid but these amounts seem excessive to me,” Zapatero, a fan of Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona, said in an interview with television broadcaster Cuatro.
“In principle, I don’t like it,” he said.
New Real president Florentino Perez had spent around US$94 million on Brazilian Kaka before his offer to Manchester United to buy Ronaldo and the club has said they want four or five more top players.
The huge transfer fees have shocked people in Spain, particularly with the country in deep recession, unemployment rising toward 20 percent and many soccer clubs saddled with huge debts.
Zapatero joined his economy minister, Elena Salgado, in urging the banks who are loaning Perez most of the money for his spending spree to extend credit to companies struggling to negotiate favorable loans.
But he said the government was essentially powerless to intervene in the workings of the free market.
“We cannot always complain in an economy with a free market when there is something we don’t like, and there are a lot of things that I don’t like,” he told Cuatro.
“It would be bad for the government to step in and say to a bank, this credit yes and this credit no,” he said. “It has to be the private sector that takes the risk.”
Perez was quoted as saying yesterday that people who have called the club’s spending immoral are ignorant and misguided.
Asked in an interview with newspaper Publico if he was annoyed when his bid for Ronaldo was labeled immoral, Perez told the paper: “No. I simply believe that it is a result of ignorance.”
“This is a corporate project and some investments [in players] and those who see it differently are misguided. But time will prove us right and that’s why I am relaxed,” he said.
Perez has argued that the investment in Ronaldo, Kaka and others will more than pay for itself by generating new income from merchandising, the sale of audiovisual rights, advertising and marketing.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB