Football these days appears to be dominated by Financial Fair Play, however, the potential signing of Kylian Mbappe by Real Madrid has led to questions as to whether the rules are all that they seem.
How can Los Blancos seemingly afford the Frenchman in what is being dubbed ‘the most expensive free transfer of all time’?
Former super agent and creator of the Premier League, Jon Smith, believes that there’s two reasons for the same.
Real Madrid were General Franco’s club
“Real Madrid are kind of a law unto themselves,” he said to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Apparently PSG didn’t quite get punished for their FFP issues and Man City still seem to be in the long grass – for a wee bit longer anyway.
“Bear in mind Real Madrid was the club of General Franco, and Franco was a bit like Putin is in Russia, he kind of owned the country.
“So I think the problem for everyone else is that Real Madrid are probably still living off of Franco’s bank account in some shape or form.
“I mean, there’s been there’s been a lot of discussion about how they still own their training ground when apparently they might allegedly have sold it a few times. Not quite sure how that’s played out.
“Real Madrid can do stuff like this because they can and because they’ve enough money around them and enough assets to put into FFP.”
Whether figures are being massaged or some other way of legally circumventing the rules is in play is a moot point at this stage.
Unlike the likes of Man City, for example, Los Blancos have never been subject to any UEFA probes, or else their three-peat back in the last decade could be under threat.
Remember Trevor Francis when talking about Kylian Mbappe
As for the signing of Mbappe and the extortionate figures being mentioned, Smith won’t criticise Florentino Perez for going after the player, even spending multi-millions in the process.
“I can’t argue against Kylian Mbappe becoming the ‘most expensive free transfer of all time’ because I was the guy who led the charge into the Premier League and said players have to be paid much better,” he added.
“Remember when Trevor Francis was the first million pound player and we all went, ‘Oh my God.’ Now £120m for a player doesn’t seem to scare the horses, so we’re only talking about advancing what there already is.”
Smith did sound one note of caution. Though transfer fees continue to go through the roof, they can’t go on spirally upwards ad infinitum.
“Certainly nothing goes up forever, but I have been saying this in football for 20 years and it’s kept going up” Smith concluded.
“Potentially, it’s got further to go but there will be a moment in time, a sort of pause or a levelling out because living in the stratosphere can be can be very dangerous.”