Fifa continue to bend their own rules in favour of Real Madrid. If yesterday it was Robinho, today it is Diarra who has been given special permission by Fifa to play for Madrid this weekend at the expense of missing his national team Mali’s qualifying match for the African Nations Cup. Freddy Kanoute has also been released to play for Sevilla. Mali’s coach is said to be considering resigning. Meanwhile in Brazil they are still furious over the Robinho case and are demanding that Fifa rules be complied with.

Since Fifa nearly always rule in favour of the national teams in cases such as these, ruling in favour of Madrid does make the historically paranoid fans of Football Club Barcelona just a little bit suspicious.