Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti claims he will turn the down chance to sign Barcelona forward Lionel Messi because he already has Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo has received widespread acclaim for his performances this season, including a stunning hat-trick for his country in the second leg of their World Cup play-off with Sweden, which sealed their place at Brazil 2014.
The 28-year-old has also excelled at club level too and is a firm favourite to lift the Ballon d’Or in January, and Ancelotti says he will strengthen in other positions of his side rather than bring in the Argentine to the Bernabeu.
“If I could sign one player for Real Madrid, it wouldn’t be Messi, I’d rather reinforce another position,” he told Italian broadcasterRadio Capital.
“We have Cristiano, who needs Messi? God gave him (Ronaldo) a special gift.”
However, Ancelotti did joke that the capital outfit might be interested in bringing Messi to the club should Barca decide to sell the Argentine.
He added, “If Barca sell Messi, they should call us.”
Meanwhile, Spain’s competition commission has fined broadcaster Mediapro, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Racing Santander a total of £12.4m for breaking rules regulating the sale of television rights, Reuters reports.
Mediapro was fined €6.5m (£5.3m), Real €3.9m (£3.2m), Barca €3.6m (£2.9m) and Sevilla and Santander €900,000 (£744,000) and €30,000 (£25,000) respectively, the commission said on Monday.
The fines were levied because the broadcaster and the four clubs had agreed four-year contracts for TV rights, a year longer than the three years allowed.
Mediapro said it and the clubs had acted “in good faith” and the contracts complied with Spanish law.
The broadcaster will appeal the ruling while taking steps to ensure it does not have to pay the fines while a decision is pending.
Mediapro and Canal Plus, part of the Prisa media group, share the rights to broadcast La Liga matches in Spain.
Unlike in other major European leagues, the sale of TV rights is not subject to collective bargaining and clubs agree deals individually with broadcasters.
Real and Barca, the world’s two richest clubs by income, between them take about half the total TV revenue for La Liga of around €700m (£579m).
Koscielny banned
Defender Laurent Koscielny will be able to feature from the start of France’s World Cup campaign after being given just a one-match suspension for his red card in the play-off against Ukraine.
A FIFA spokesman told AFP that Koscielny had been given the ban, which was served in the second leg of the play-off, which France won 3-2 on aggregate.
Koscielny was red-carded for violent conduct at the end of Les Bleus’ 2-0 defeat to Ukraine in Kiev and there had been fears that he would be given a lengthy suspension that might have prevented him from going to Brazil.
However, he now seems certain to be included in Didier Deschamps’ squad for the finals.