Ronaldo cites ‘heat of moment’ after left off Manchester United squad
Real Madrid player says he wanted to be on the pitch, but missed out due to a “heat of the moment”
By Scott Mitchell
PUBLISHED: 11:00, Tue, Jul 14, 2016
Uefa has fined Real Madrid an undisclosed amount for breaching the Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations during the 2015/16 season.
The Madrid president, Florentino Perez, admitted the club had been “surprised” to learn they had breached FFP rules but said that the club had “always been proactive”.
As a result, Spain’s World Cup-winning coach, Louis van Gaal, has been left out of the squad for the third successive tournament in Brazil. He is likely to start tomorrow’s group game in Sao Paulo.
Van Gaal, who is also the manager at Netherlands, could have been replaced by Xabi Alonso, who has also been left out of the squad.
The coach has also been fined by Uefa for breaching the ‘fair play regulations’ after he claimed his tactics were not as successful as they had been in previous campaigns.
The Football Association said that it had fined Real Madrid an undisclosed amount, without specifying the punishment.
Real Madrid had been fined €100,000 for breaching FFP in 2014/15, and another €50,000 (£42,000) in the 2015/16 season, but Uefa has increased the fine from four times that amount to a record £450,000
“It was because of our actions that the financial situation has become so difficult,” Perez told reporters.
“We’ve always been proactive. We have always said we were going to stick together, and we did. We are fighting very hard. The decisions were taken by the board. At the end of the day, it is not a person that decides, it is the board.”
Perez said that he has yet