Transfer Balls: Real Madrid say Manchester United scuppered De Gea deal with shoddy admin
Real Madrid did everything they could to sign Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea. They did everything aside from paying the fee Man United wanted and filing their papers on time.
United says they completed all of their paperwork in time. They are brandishing Fifa’s International Transfer Matching System (TMS) to prove it.
But Real say the 24-year-old’s £29m deal (it included the move to £11m-rated Keylor Navas to Old Trafford) fell through because United took eight hours to reply to contracts. Real say Man United dithered, sending back the agreement with “small modifications”:
“Due to not being relevant, all the modifications were accepted immediately by Real Madrid with the intention of being able to register the player on time in the TMS and with the LFP.”
Real have released a statement
- United only opened negotiations over De Gea on Monday
- The clubs reached a rapid agreement on the transfer of De Gea and Navas
- Real submitted contracts at 13:39 Spanish time, with United sending minor modifications back at 21:43
- United entered De Gea’s details, but not Navas’s into Fifa’s Transfer Matching System (TMS) at exactly midnight
- Real received the full documentation at 00:02, by which time the TMS had closed
Manchester United say:
- United sent De Gea documents but Real could not download them because of IT issues
- Real did not send De Gea registration documents to the Spanish league on time
The upshot is that with weeks to get the deal done, nothing happened. Unless, Man United finally sold Real that “virus”…
Posted: 1st, September 2015 | In: manchester united, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
