Inter are prepared for the prospect of facing a legal battle with Real Madrid over the club’s alleged pursuit of Luka Modric this summer.
The Nerazzurri were unable to bring the Croatian midfielder to Italy in the end after the Spanish giants refused to grant the player’s wish to leave Los Blancos, despite reports Florentino Perez had promised Modric that he would not stand in his way should the 32 year-old choose to depart this summer.
However the story is set to rumble on into the first few weeks of the season after Madrid reported Inter to FIFA, citing a violation of Article 18 Paragraph 3 in the governing body’s laws on transfers, as Gazzetta dello Sport outlined on Saturday.
“Essentially, Real Madrid have accused Inter of speaking to Modric without having informed them first. By way of proof Florentino Perez and co. have cited, amongst other things, various articles which have appeared in the Italian papers claiming the player had agreed personal terms with them.
“As is standard practice in these instances, on 14 August FIFA asked for Inter to file a report on the matter within 48 hours. On 16 August, the Nerazzurri’s legal team sent a two-page letter back to Zurich in which they replied point-by-point to each of Madrid’s accusations.
“The sense of the letter was: ‘we never contacted the player directly, we never discussed personal terms with him and it was the player who offered himself to us via his agent during our negotiations for Sime Vrsaljko, explaining that he would attempt to free himself from his current club.'”
The Milanese publication also touched upon comments made by La Liga president Javier Tebas on Friday, in which he accused several clubs (amongst which Inter) of ‘cheating’ in the transfer market. Inter released an official statement shortly afterwards confirming that they would pursue legal action against Tebas.
“The suspicion is that nothing will come of this,” they write. “However Inter wanted to make it clear, now that they’ve returned to the Champions League, that they feel they belong at Europe’s top table now.”
