FIFA's decision to ask the Spanish Football Federation to monitor Real Madrid's conduct in the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga has come as a pleasant surprise to Manchester United.
Football's world governing body responded to United's complaints over Real's public courtship of the Portuguese star yesterday evening by announcing that no action would be taken against the Spanish giants at this stage. However, FIFA did issue a war
ning to Real of the consequences of inducing the Portugal winger to breach his contract.
The announcement came sooner than United had perhaps expected and the club might well have welcomed FIFA taking longer to respond, as it would no doubt have helped to keep a lid on speculation to a certain extent for as long as their deliberations continued. However, they will have been encouraged the Spanish federation have been asked to speak to Real representatives.
FIFA's statement read: "We can confirm we received last week a formal complaint from Manchester United related to the player Cristiano Ronaldo and the club Real Madrid. From the documentation received, no breach of contract appears to have occurred yet.
"The Spanish Football Federation has been informed of the complaint and been asked to remind its member club Real Madrid about the potential legal consequences of a breach of contract without just cause."
The full article contains 226 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
