Family Push for Ronaldo Move As United Go to Fifa Over Real

Manchester United's increasingly aggressive attempts to repel Real Madrid's advances for Cristiano Ronaldo were undermined last night when the player's brother reiterated the news that is threatening to ruin Sir Alex Ferguson's summer. "He wants to play for Real Madrid," Hugo Santos Aveiro told La Sexta, the Spanish television station, in an interview that is believed to have been authorized by the Portugal international.

Lawyers from Old Trafford yesterday submitted an official complaint to Fifa about Madrid's behavior, including a dossier of all the times officials from the Spanish club have spoken publicly about their desire to sign Ronaldo. United's argument is that it has been a concerted and deliberate campaign to unsettle a player who is under contract, but the latest noises from Ronaldo's camp are increasingly making it look as though the European Cup winners are fighting a losing battle.

If the player's siblings are to be believed, the question is when, rather than if, the transfer will happen. Hugo, the elder brother by 10 years, said Ronaldo had decided "to play for Real Madrid" whereas their sister, Elma, said he would be fulfilling a boyhood dream. Hugo added: "Between now and next year, or the year after, he will go to Real Madrid. Personally, I would like that. I would like it very much."

For two members of a close family to be talking so confidently will be a further sign for Ferguson that Real have already persuaded Ronaldo to try to engineer a move, with the player having confirmed he had set his mind on playing in La Liga.

United, however, insist they will do everything they can to stop him. "On 27 May, Manchester United made clear its intention to report Real Madrid to Fifa if it continued to involve itself in the future of Cristiano Ronaldo," the club said in a statement. "Unfortunately, Real Madrid has not kept its own counsel and the club feels it has no alternative but to make a formal complaint to the world governing body. The precise content and nature will remain confidential."

A Fifa spokesman confirmed it had received the document but said it was "too early" to say what would happen. United would like Madrid to be officially reprimanded but, in the grand scheme of things, that is unlikely to worry the Spaniards too much. Ferguson, indeed, has said in the past that United would have complained long before now but had reckoned that Madrid would not "bother their backsides about it".