Congrats Barca

Barry to Citeh for £12m and £100,000/wk

Nao that the season is over, Ronaldo needs to party!

MOAR!

Sadder news from Barça, they might sell Eto'o...

Samuelito!

The best replacement would be Villa

Barry to Citeh for £12m and £100,000/wk

 

Last year Barry said he was desperate to play European football, now he's left a team in the UEFA Cup (or whatever it's called these days) to play for a team that isn't in Europe at all. I'd have had more admiration for him if he just came out and said he joined City for the money. <_<

On the plus side though, we don't have to put up with another irritating, protracted transfer saga this summer...

 

...oh wait, never mind.

Kaka, what have you done?

This is like when Palpatine turned Anakin to the dark Side of the Force.

Sad times, being a Milan fan

Next target: Ronaldo or Villa :|

Ribery and Xabi Alonso are also on their target list.

Ed, if they get Alonso as well, you'd probably start hating them just as much as I do, right?

More!

Ronaldo off to Real.

Where on Earth are Royale Madrid (as I heard them called on today's news ) getting all this money from? :|

Where on Earth are Royale Madrid (as I heard them called on today's news ) getting all this money from? :|

This article should answer your questions:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8094864.stm

Just a few of the stand-outs mentioned in there:

The television money, both overseas and at home, is crucial to Real's surge in income in recent years.

Since 1997 Spanish clubs have sold their own rights individually.

Real Madrid signed its latest deal in 2006 - for a reported record 1.1bn euros - with Spanish film and TV company Mediapro for seven seasons of broadcast rights.

That works out at a huge 150m euros a year.

But overseas merchandising, domestic and TV rights, and matchday earnings are not Real's only income streams.

It also has a number of high profile sponsorship partners - Bwin.com, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Audi, and Spanish beer brand Mahou.

An image rights deal with Adidas alone in early 2007 garnered them 762m euros.

Another benefit, one that helps attract top name players, is the fact that tax legislation allows their foreign players to pay tax at about 23% for the first five years that they are in the country.

Very interesting stuff. (Y) For just another £20m, they could buy Newcastle.

Ronaldo is really out to antagonize me. He's just joined the only club in the world I hate even more than Manure.

Ronaldo to pick up

This one's for Michael*

SAUCE!

Need I say more?

Next year's Champions League will be fun, everybody will be out to beat Real