Man Utd report Real over Ronaldo
Manchester United have lodged an official complaint with Fifa over Real Madrid's interest in signing their Portugal winger Cristiano Ronaldo.The English champions have reacted angrily to the Spaniards' persistent courting of the 23-year-old.
"On 27 May, United made clear its intention to report Real Madrid if it continued to involve itself in the future of Ronaldo," a statement read.
"Unfortunately, Real Madrid has not kept its own counsel."
The statement went on: "The club feels it has no alternative but to make a formal complaint to the world governing body, which it has done today.
"The precise content and nature will remain confidential."
A Fifa spokesman added: "I can confirm that we have received an official request from Manchester United to look into the matter.
"We have only just received the documents so we need some time to analyse them before we can make any decision."
The two clubs have been engaged in a war of words over the last month - while comments attributed to the player himself have also fuelled the speculation.
Despite being under contract at Old Trafford until 2012, Ronaldo has refused to state publicly and unequivocally that his future lies with United.
The Red Devils' threat of a complaint to Fifa on 27 May came after Real coach Bernd Schuster claimed Ronaldo was their number one summer transfer target.
Following United's victory over Chelsea in the Champions League final, manager Sir Alex Ferguson accused Real of a "lack of morals", insisted his player was not for sale and criticised Schuster and Madrid club president Ramon Calderon for their attempts to unsettle the player.
"Schuster's talking and Calderon's talking," he said. "Real think they can ride roughshod over everyone, but they won't do it with us. They have no moral issues."
And Ferguson drew a comparison with Real's fierce rivals Barcelona as he fought to draw a line under continuing speculation surrounding the 23-year-old's future.
He said: "In terms of great clubs, Barcelona have far better morality than Real Madrid will ever have. Real use this Marca newspaper as a vehicle to unsettle players.
"Do you not think we have had many expressions of interest about our players from big clubs in Europe?
"Real Madrid are not the only club interested in Ronaldo. But the others are not saying so. They don't get into this nonsense.
"Calderon makes that great statement 'slavery was abolished many years ago'. Did they tell General Franco that? Give me a break.
"The simple fact is Cristiano has another four years left on his contract."
United have sold David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Gabriel Heinze to Real in recent years, but Ferguson insisted the case of Ronaldo was different.
He said: "Yes, we sold them Van Nistelrooy and Beckham but we did that because we wanted to."
And Argentine defender Heinze was transferred to Real last summer after failing in a public battle to secure a move to United's arch-rivals Liverpool.
Calderon has denied that his club were trying to unsettle Ronaldo, saying: "We aren't going to start a conflict. If a club doesn't want to sell why would we insist they sell him?"
But Ronaldo was quoted last week as saying that he "would like to play for Real Madrid - but only if they are ready to pay what Manchester United ask of them".
Ferguson had previously said that the club would rather have Ronaldo sitting in the stands than sell him to Real.
But on Sunday, Ronaldo said he had not decided about his future, and would not comment again until after the European Championship.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/7416981.stm
