Real deal for Bale revealed as £90m

THE size of Gareth Bale’s world-record transfer from Tottenham to Real Madrid is no longer in doubt following the publication of leaked documents which revealed the mega-move cost £90million in total.

Real have long claimed they paid £78m for Bale in 2013 — less than Cristiano Ronaldo’s £80m move from Manchester United four years earlier — because the Portuguese striker wanted to remain the club’s most expensive galactico.

But it emerges that £78m was the price for Bale only if Madrid paid it all up front in 15 days. Instead, they opted to pay £85.1m in four instalments spread over three years — the last of which is due on July 24 this year.

The transfer fine print also states Spurs are forbidden from disclosing any financial detail, and Bale from making negative comments about the north London club.

As part of the Bale deal, Madrid also waived the money Spurs still owed them from their signing of Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart from the Bernabeu club in 2010.

That Van der Vaart instalment, understood to be around £3m, plus solidarity payments to Southampton — the club which developed Bale — of more than £1m which Madrid also paid take the full cost of the signing to a staggering £90m.

And with Bale’s current form justifying his enormous price tag, Real Madrid are believed to be relaxed about the real numbers entering the public domain.

THE formidable partnership of former News of the World editor and No 10 spokesman Andy Coulson (right) and Henry Chappell, owner of sports PR business Pitch, who are setting up a new corporate communications consultancy, Coulson-Chappell, should interest the battered sports world, whose scandal-hit ruling bodies need all the expert help they can muster. The only doubt about the Coulson-Chappell combination is how quickly Coulson can recover his reputation after serving a prison sentence for conspiracy to hack phones. ENGLAND manager Roy Hodgson’s desire to at least spend an afternoon with his squad in the four-month break between internationals is finally going to happen next month at St George’s Park. The request was kiboshed by clubs last season. But after FA chief executive Martin Glenn explained the rationale at a Premier League meeting, this long-awaited summit will take place midway through February with England’s next match not until March 26 against Germany in Berlin.

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