President denies Cristiano Ronaldo deal

Real Madrid president Vicente Boluda denied on Friday that his club has an agreement to sign Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo.

Speaking to sports daily Marca, Boluda rejected claims that his club had agreed a 70-million-dollar loan with the Banco Santander to sign Ronaldo.

Boluda has stated that he will step down as club president at the end of the season to allow new elections to be held, but he insisted that Ronaldo was not on the agenda.

"We have not asked for any loans. There is also no sense in us asking for a loan for the month of June. At the moment there is no chance of us signing anyone," said Boluda.

Real Madrid is the richest club of the world

Real Madrid have retained the number one spot on the World's wealthiest clubs by revenue list for the fourth year in a row.

Deloitte's Football Money League released the figures showing English Manchester United at number two.

The financial information from the 2007-2008 season was used in compiling the list. The weakness of the pound made the difference for United, as they would have achieved the top rank if the value of the pound had been retained, Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte said. Manchester United had a 21 percent revenue increase. Real Madrid has an increase of 4 percent, giving them a lead on United of EUR 41 million.

FC Barcelona retained their position at third place, while Chelsea dropped to fifth. Claiming third place is Bayern Munich, up for seventh place the previous season.

"The unique nature of the football industry will enable major clubs to be relatively resistant to the economic downturn," said Paul Rawnsley, director in the Sports Business Group.

"Clubs' match attendances are holding up well and clubs in each of England, Germany, France and Spain have TV deals secured well into the future at enhanced levels.

"Despite the challenging economic environment, the Premier League has just secured a record value for live domestic broadcast rights for the seasons 2010/11 to 2012/13, up 4 percent to GBP 1.782bn.

"Given the worldwide popularity of the Premier League there is likely to be further uplift in value from overseas rights when they are marketed later this year." Position (06/07) Club Revenue EUR/m (GBP/m)
1 (1) Real Madrid 365.8 (289.6)
2 (2) Manchester United 324.8 (257.1
3 (3) FC Barcelona 308.8 (244.4)
4 (7) Bayern Munich 295.3 (233.8)
5 (4) Chelsea 268.9 (212.9)
6 (5) Arsenal 264.4 (209.3)
7 (8) Liverpool 210.9 (167.0)
8 (6) AC Milan 209.5 (165.8)
9 (11) AS Roma 175.4 (138.9)
10 (9) Internazionale 172.9 (136.9)
11 (12) Juventus 167.5 (132.6)
12 (13) O. Lyonnais 155.7 (123.3)
13 (16) Schalke 148.4 (117.5)
14 (10) Tottenham 145.0 (114.8)
15 (15) Hamburger SV 127.9 (101.3)
16 (19) O. Marseille 126.8 (100.4)
17 (14) Newcastle United 125.6 (99.4)
18 (n/a) VfB Stuttgart 111.5 (88.3)
19 (n/a) Fenerbahce 111.3 (88.1)
20 (n/a) Manchester City 104.0 (82.3)

Match Report Real Madrid 1-0 Racing Santander [La Liga Match Video]

Real Madrid took their seventh straight victory against Racing Santander at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Higuain's goal and a very good defence. Higuain netted his 13th league strike and the defensive line conceded no goals. Iker Casillas played his 454th clash with the team.

Racing put a lot of pressure on Real Madrid from the start and looked to surprise them in attack through Lacen and Colsa's work in midfield. Aware that this would happen, Juande lined up Lass, Van de Vaart and Sneijder in midfield. Rafael served the team's first chance with a free-kick that Ramos finished off, but the defender's shot wasn't on target (10').

Lass became increasingly important thanks to his wise distribution of the ball; his opponents could do nothing to stop him. His excellent job allowed the team to have three consecutive dangerous ventures in attack (12'). The Dutch forward served a cross into the box that found no one to finish it off. Keeper Toño then cleared a strong shot of his with the right foot. Finally, Sneijder pased the ball to Van der Vaart, whose lob was cleared by the keeper. Rául also had a chance in the final minutes of the first half when a header of his missed the mark by inches.

Higuain scores; Faubert makes debut
It only took Higuain three minutes into the second half to score the team's goal. He made great use of an assist served by Raul with his head and beat Toño with a crossed shot. Racing seemed to be in a state of shock and Real Madrid used this to try to score another strike. Pepe surprised the visitors with a powerful sprint. He passed the ball to Higuain, who shot on target again, but Toño cleared the ball with his right leg. Coach Muñiz was forced to replace Lacen and Tchite with Toni Moral and Luccin.

Faubert came on for Robben because Juande wanted to try to surprise Racing down the right wing. Javi Garcia and Marcelo also came on. In the end, Real Madrid won their seventh straight victory, no doubt the best present for Iker Casillas, who today caught up with his idol Paco Buyo by playing his 454th game with the first team.