KEY POINTS:
In an utterance as remarkable as any he has issued this summer, Cristiano Ronaldo declared last night that he agreed with Fifa President Sepp Blatter's assertion that Manchester United should stop treating him like a 'modern day slave' and release him to Real Madrid.
Coming from a 23-year-old paid 100,000 pounds a week by a club considering allowing him to complete his recuperatation from knee surgery in the Algrave and delay his return to Manchester, Ronaldo's assertion will prompt as much indignation as Blatter's did when he said yesterday that footballers, tied to longer contracts since the Bosman ruling, were enslaved and should be given greater freedom to move on.
The metaphor Blatter chose was even worse than his line of argument which, taken to its logical conclusion would allow for no transfer market and allow any player to leave for the highest bidder at the drop of a hat, with all the consequences that would have for the sport's poorer clubs.
But Ronaldo was unmoved.
He agreed that he should be allowed to leave for Real, though he revealed while leaving his rehabilitation clinic in the Algarve that he does not expect to be playing for anyone for up to 12 weeks, following his ankle operation.
That prognosis is far worse than expected at United, who had hoped he might be fit within six weeks.
Contrary to some reports, the Portuguese also said he had not agreed personal terms with Real.
That reinforces the idea, expounded by the club's president Ramon Calderon at the weekend, that Ronaldo will be a United player next season.
If and when Ronaldo does return to Premier League action, his suggestion that he is a modern-day slave will leave him liable to receive a colourful response from opposing supporters.
Manchester United led a chorus of opposition yesterday to comments which appear to rank somewhere alongside Blatter's legendary assumption that women footballers should wear 'tighter shorts' to make the game easier on the eye.
"All our players - like at other clubs - enter into their contracts after an open and free negotiation," the club said.
"Most of whom do after taking agent. Many do so on a number of occasions and enjoy long and successful stays at Old Trafford."
This is the prevailing view in a sport where, in the pre-Bosman era when clubs could hold a player's registration and refuse to release it, even if that individual's contract had come to an end, footballers could claim to be enthralled.
The idea that a player like Ronaldo may, one year into a five-year contract, declare on a whim that he wishes to fulfil a "dream" of playing in Spain, banishes any notion of a contractual arrangement.
Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers' Association, said that Blatter was way out of touch.
"The transfer system is underwritten and regulated by Fifa. It is the cornerstone of developing talent right up the football pyramid," he said.
"We also have the important issue of sanctity of contract. This is fundamental to all commercial and employment relationships, in that a contract freely entered into is honoured. You consider the potential consequences of what he advocates; McDonald's could walk away from their Fifa World Cup sponsorship and might want to play somewhere else."
Other observers pointed out that Blatter's words contradicted his declaration, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling in the Andy Webster case in February, that players' failure to comply with their contracts would destroy the fabric of football.
Some players do provide evidence of a contrary view.
It could be argued that Aston Villa's Gareth Barry, for all the criticism he has received for the way he has questioned his manager Martin O'Neill's reluctance to discuss his move to Liverpool, has been ill treated.
His willingness to stay at Villa was based on an understanding that he might be free to leave if a top four club came in for him.
His struggle to leave after 11 years at the club would appear to make him a more appropriate example for Blatter than Ronaldo, who has been nurtured and well rewarded at United.
- THE INDEPENDENT
