Manchester United and Real Madrid head for meeting

[Elano]

Officials from Manchester United and Real Madrid will today be together in the same room for the first time since David Gill, the United chief executive, reported the Spanish club to Fifa for an alleged tapping-up of Cristiano Ronaldo. The clubs will come face to face at the inaugural meeting of the European Club Association (ECA) in Nyon, Switzerland.

The meeting of the group that is replacing the disbanded G14 will be given added spice by the confrontation between the clubs. United will refuse to discuss the Portugal winger with Ramón Calderón, the Real president, at the two-day event, which will appoint a 15-man board for the group.

Calderón tried to play down the dispute between the clubs yesterday. “I have heard that Ronaldo has said many times that he would like to go to Madrid and it is his dream,” he said. “But we can’t say any more as it could be misinterpreted and we wouldn’t like to upset Manchester. I don’t know if he will play for Real next season. We will only do what United want to do with the player.”

Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, and Rick Parry, his Liverpool counterpart, are expected to be appointed to the board of the organisation, which has filled the vacuum left when the G14 disbanded in January. The new association comprises 103 clubs – including at least one from all 53 Uefa member nations – who are selected on recent achievements, with a greater number from England, Spain and Italy. Representatives of Newcastle United are expected to be present, although Arsenal have not confirmed their attendance.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern Munich chairman, is standing unopposed for the ECA chairmanship. The former West Germany striker has said that legal cases supported by the former G14 have been dropped in exchange for compensation payments. The most significant case involved Charleroi, the Belgian club, who were suing Fifa for compensation because of an injury suffered by Abdelmajid Oulmers while playing for Morocco.

The decision to drop the Charleroi case was taken after Uefa and Fifa agreed to compensate clubs whose players are called up for international tournaments. The European Championship finals last month was the first to be part of the new agreement, with clubs receiving about £2,800 for every day one of their players was involved.

But Rummenigge wants football’s governing bodies to address other issues. These include the international calendar, rescheduling the African Cup of Nations, which is in the middle of most European league seasons, and Fifa’s proposals on quotas for foreign players.

To emphasise unity among the clubs, an eight-a-side tournament has been slated for today, with Parry playing as a goalkeeper and Gill in attack.



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