Gareth Bale contract leak sparks panic at Real Madrid

The leaking of documents revealing the financial details of Gareth Bale's world record transfer to Real Madrid has sparked fury with the player's representatives - and panic at the club.

RONALDO & BALE

The details of Bale’s move from Spurs to Madrid in 2013 were released by website Football Leaks and confirmed that the deal was a world record, also eclipsing the fee paid to Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo four years earlier.

Real have always claimed the Bale deal was worth €91.59 million, with Ronaldo's fee eclipsing that at €96 million, but the leaked documents have reported that Bale’s fee amounted to €100,759,418 after they opted to pay Spurs in instalments rather than up front.

AS also claim that the document detailing the deal, which runs to six pages, specified that Real would issue a press release stating that the price of the deal was €91.59million. It also stipulates that Spurs could not reveal any financial details surrounding the transfer to the media.

Jonathan Barnett, the co-owner of football agency Stellar Group who brokered Bale’s move, is furious at how the finer details of the transfer have been made public.

He told Telegraph Sport: “There should be an inquiry and an independent investigation because it’s outrageous. There also needs to be an apology from the Football Association to the clubs and the player. “I think it’s disgraceful that people can get hold of this sort of stuff. It shows complete disregard for both clubs and the player.”

And the report will also have political repercussions at the Spanish giants, as it has long been thought that Real's insistence that Bale's fee was not as large as Ronaldo's was part of a concerted effort to appease their talismanic forward.

The Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Northcroft claimed earlier this month that he had been asked not to refer to Bale's transfer fee as a world record in an interview he had conducted with the Wales international. Speaking to the BBC, he said: "Real Madrid are a club so worried about image that when I interviewed Bale it was requested to me, 'don't put in the article how much Gareth Bale cost'.