WHETHER the deal to take Kaka to Real Madrid this week was a world record transfer fee or not, the figures involved have again offered an insight into the madness of football.

While we should probably take heart from the fact the Brazilian didn’t head for Manchester City for the ridiculous £100m-plus sums talked about in January, there is still plenty reason to be concerned.

The more Real Madrid spend on players this summer, the more English clubs will dream about playing catch up – even if they don’t want to publicly admit it.

Real have begun the summer with the £56m purchase of Kaka which eclipses the £47.6m paid for Zinedine Zidane eight years ago.

While the current exchange rate means the rest of the world perceive the Kaka transfer to be just over 8m euros down on the Zidane deal, one thing is clear: few others can compete.

AC Milan’s willingness to accept the inflated price for their prize asset highlights their need for cash, even if Serie A was the fastest growing league in the world with total revenues increasing to 1.4bn euros (34 per cent) between 2007/08.

And you only have to look at the Premier League’s top two to see they can’t even contemplate entering into an auction with Real for players such as Kaka and Franck Ribery. If Manchester United prevent Cristiano Ronaldo from moving to the Bernabeu this summer that will be a success.

Liverpool, runners-up in the Premier League, are hampered by interest payments and their debt has doubled in the last year.

Champions United face a similar burden.

Perhaps there are such millions (if not billions) available for Carlo Ancelotti and Mark Hughes to spend at Chelsea and Manchester City respectively.

But, quite simply, the Bernabeu or Stamford Bridge?

Few would disagree with Kaka’s decision.

Debts, mainly through the ridiculous wage packets which Deloitte claimed last week were up 23 per cent, continue to spiral in the Premier League, and it is the same in Spain.

But while United and Liverpool are indebted to the Americans – or should that be to the banks – there is a completely different approach to life at Real. But how do they have their money?

Months after Perez became president on the previous occasion, the Madrid club’s debts were £180m in 2001. But that was cleared through the sale of their training ground to local and regional authorities for £290m.

That allowed enough money to attract Luis Figo and Zidane, with the Frenchman hammering that stunning volleyed winner at Hampden Park to secure the 2002 Champions league crown.

It has been estimated that Real make £135m-ayear from domestic rights alone, which is at least twice as much as United or the rest of the Premier League.

And because there is a collective agreement to spread the money from the rights generously in the Premier League – as opposed to the rights being sold individually to clubs in Spain – it is difficult to imagine United or Liverpool being able to challenge for the likes of Kaka in the near future.

But the day the Premier League and the Football Association adopt Spain’s lead is the day the rest of the division becomes completely detached from the big four.

Just like it is now!

SPEAKING of rights, the short life of Setanta as a major broadcaster appears to be drawing to a close amid signs that administration is imminent, which could have devastating consequences for football in the UK.

The collapse of a major rights holder would mean the fire-sale of all contracts they have with the Premier League, Scottish Premier League and Conference plus individual deals with the TV stations of Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea.

The FA and the Premier League – who have contracts worth almost £700m – have refused to cut their deals and it is understood the FA have already taken steps to cut ten per cent from their budgets in preparation for the worst.

Setanta owes around £130m for the final year of its existing Premier League deal and is due to start a new three-year deal next year worth £159m for a single package of games.

But a European Commission ruling that no single broadcaster could enjoy a monopoly of Premier League matches means American broadcaster ESPN would be a leading candidate to compete with Sky.