ZURICH: (Reuters) – FIFA president Sepp Blatter said yesterday he was powerless to stop transfer fees from rocketing following the world record fee of 100 million euros (£84 million) paid by Real Madrid for Welsh winger Gareth Bale.
“(Even) when you say a country is poor or in debt, you always find money in football,” Blatter told reporters.

“If the price of a player is high or not high, I think it’s the market that decides and we cannot intervene in the market.”
Blatter said he doubted that any player was worth the sum paid for Bale.
“If a player is the value of that, I doubt it, but I cannot stop it,” he said.
Blatter said he remembered a similar controversy when Brazilian forward Ronaldo moved from Inter Milan to Real Madrid in 2002.
“At the same time, there was an auction at Sothebys in London where they sold a Picasso painting from the blue period for more than £50 million ($78 million),” said Blatter.
“So I said, the man who acquired this painting, he will put it somewhere in closed circuit because it’s dangerous to lose it.
“But Ronaldo, you will see him twice every week in a stadium.”