Blatter helpless to stop transfer fees soaring

FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists that there is nothing he can do to stop soaring transfer fees.

His comments come in the wake of Gareth Bale’s move to Real Madrid for a reported world record fee in the region of £85million.

The previous record was the £80m Real spent on Cristiano Ronaldo to lure him from Manchester United in 2009.

Speaking about Bale’s big-money move, and others like it, Blatter said: “If a player is the value of that, I doubt it, but I cannot stop it.

“If the price of a player is high or not high, I think it’s the market that decides and we cannot intervene in the market.

“Even when you say a country is poor or in debt, you always find money in football.”

Blatter went on to recall the Brazilian Ronaldo’s move from Inter Milan to Real Madrid in 2002, making comparisons between the striker and an expensive painting.

“At the same time, there was an auction at Sotheby’s,” he added.

“They sold a Picasso painting from the blue period for more than £50million.

“So I said, the man who acquired the painting, he will put it somewhere closed circuit because it’s dangerous to lose it.

“But Ronaldo, you will see him twice every week in a stadium.”