Ferguson? Where...
Bernabeu was just a man with a name sitiing on the wrong chair at the wrong moment, Franco, believe me, search on I-Net, he was the man. Did you know, Alfredo di Stefano wanted to join Barca at that time, but Frnaco didn't allow it. Instead, Di Stefano, who just escaped from civil-war in Colombia, he joined R. Madrid.
And a last one:
In 1953, Di Stéfano signed a deal with
FC Barcelona and
FIFA, who didn't know anything about Di Stéfano having left Millonarios without permission, authorized the transfer from River Plate. The Spanish Federation, however, did not recognise the deal. According to Andres Ramírez, the Spanish Football Federation secretary, both Millonarios (who owned the rights of the player until the end of 1954, according to the agreements reached in the
Lima Pact) and River Plate's consent were needed in order for Di Stéfano to sign up with a Spanish club. Indeed Millonarios had reported
FIFA the anomalous situation of the Argentinian, so
FIFA iteself demanded the Spanish Federation to solve the problem. On 13 May 1953, he arrived in Spain to conclude his contract with Barcelona but during the discussions with the Federation,
Real Madrid's president
Santiago Bernabéu, acting upon the apparent division within the Barcelona management, convinced him to sign for them instead.
During the parallel negotiations between the two Spanish clubs and Millonarios, the Spanish Federation issued a ban on foreign players in the Spanish league. On 15 September, the Spanish Federation made public the decision, which club presidents Carreto and Bernabéu had signed, to allow Di Stéfano four seasons in Spain - two for each team, to be played alternately. The agreement created such a storm of protests by the rest of the Barcelona management and the fans that Carreto resigned a week later. The interim board succeeding him opted to scratch the agreement all together for a compensation of four million pesetas, announcing on 23 October that Real Madrid could have the player permanently. In the meantime, Di Stéfano had made his Madrid debut (on 23 September) and played poorly in each of his first few matches for the club. The reasons for FC Barcelona's decision to let the player go to Madrid are disputed by the two clubs. While Real Madrid have always maintained it was a voluntary decision by F.C. Barcelona, their rivals held that it was a decision made under pressure from
Franco's government. There are also those who feel Di Stéfano's poor form in his first few games led Barcelona to think they might be better off without him anyway. In July 1953 Barcelona's coach, Fernando Dancik, wrote a report expressing numerous doubts about the player's form. Kubala's health improvement also made the Barcelona directives lose the interest in the Argentine. Barcelona's decision having been announced, the two clubs met the following week - and Di Stéfano scored three goals against
FC Barcelona. This incident exacerbated the traditional enmity between the two clubs.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"></sup>
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Man, it has happenned many many times after franco's and in any country, how many times a player is announced and announced for a club (chelsea had robinho's shirst already on their webpage!!!) and finally went for man city, is it because of a dictators influence?
And Di estefano is president of honour of Madrid, his allegiance clearly lies to barça.
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