Buying game puts football on rocky road; Roger's RANT.

WITH dubbin being rubbed on a thousand boots ready for the new season spare a thought for Iker Casillas.

The Real Madrid and Spanish goalkeeper, who came though the academy to lead his country to their first European Championship in 44 years, is a Real oddity.

Madrid have shelled out pounds 257 million - so far - from Cristiano Ronaldo at pounds 80 million to midfielder Esteban Granero loose change at pounds 3 million.

And Casillas? He didn't cost a thing - which is fine at Walsall but at the Bernabu it must be a bit like turning up for a society wedding in a clappedout Mk III Cortina.

Whether buying players like interior designers buy books - by the yard, or in this case by the million - is going to work remains to be seen.

Real have a team perfect for exhibition games but La Liga is for real.

Mind you, when the tackles do start coming in, with Ronaldo and Arjen Robben lining up for Real, all they need is Tom Daley and they can hold their own world diving championships.

I mention Los Merengues - one of their nicknames, honest - because Scot David Taylor, UEFA chief executive is concerned about Real and our own rich kids in the sweet shop, Manchester City, destabilising the market, Did you know, for example, that Manchester City's annual wage bill for a squad of 26 is more than pounds 100 million? That's enough to pay 4,200 punters on the average wage of pounds 24,000 a year.

I mention this to prove that: a) I should get out more and b) football has gone mad.

Taylor, a Forfar fan, a team who paid precisely nothing for the five players signed for the new season, has also said UEFA are concerned about the levels of debt in English football, quoting the Icaruslike fall of Leeds.

If City mount a challenge to neighbours United, by no means certain, then UEFA fear clubs without a sugar billionaire could be tempted to borrow even more.

The bonanza might just have brought wage, debt and transfer caps, along with fielding a minimum of home grown players, a few kicks closer, all backed by the ultimate sanction.

Don't comply and it is bye bye UEFA competitions - the very thing clubs were trying to buy in the first place.

ROGER CLARKE

Read Roger's blog at * www.birminghammail.net