11 players were owed a total of �1.7m by Racing; the figures were small, seven of them in the region of little more than �40,000, but still there is concern. Not least because of which players are affected. Eleven players with a commitment to the club, players such as Gonzalo Colsa, Pedro Munitis and Pedro Pinillos, who were persuaded to hang fire and wait by Pern�a; players who bit their tongue, who did not denounce the situation. When Ali Sayed took over, they were told the wait was over. The cheque is in the post.
It seems it wasn't. They say the first promise came at the club's training ground: the 11 men were told that the payment had been made and would be in their banks any day now. The second was made at Cornell�. Ali came down to the dressing room and admitted that he hadn't made the first payment but he would. The third came an hour and a half before Racing played Levante. Munitis and Pinillos were called up to Pern�a's office and told that the money would be with them soon. Ali Syed was not there but, with devastating cheek, he offered a bonus if they beat Levante � Racing's players simply laughed at what seemed like the shamelessness of it. By the fourth, Pern�a even showed them the "bank slips".
The money never arrived.