Leaked documents show surprising features of Gareth Bale’s transfer to Real Madrid

Tottenham Hotspur have first refusal on Gareth Bale if the player leaves Real Madrid for England, according to documents leaked by the Spanish media.

An apparent transfer agreement document - published by AS via Football Leaks - states that the London club have 72 hours to match any accepted bid from another Premier League club. Neither club has commented on the supposed agreement, which puts the original fee for the player at £78.2m (or a world record £85.1m if Real Madrid took up the option to pay in installments). It also confirms that outstanding payments over the 2010 transfer of Rafael van der Vaart to Tottenham would be waived, while Spurs would have been entitled to a further £10m fee if Bale was sold by Real Madrid to a Premier League club before September 2015. Regarding the first refusal element, the document reads:

"Real Madrid and the player hereby grant to Tottenham from the date hereof until June 30, 2019 an option to match any offer received from a Premier League club for the registration of the player. "Real Madrid shall notify Tottenham the terms of any offer that it finds acceptable (a 'Third Party Offer'), and Tottenham shall thereafter have a period of 72 hours after receipt of such notification to offer to match all the terms contained in the offer to Real Madrid under the Third Party Offer. "In the event that Tottenham does match the Third Party Offer, Real Madrid shall be required to accept Tottenham's offer in preference to any other offers received (including any higher offers received following Real Madrid's receipt of the Third Party Offer) and transfer the player as soon as is possible in the first available FA Registration Period to Tottenham pursuant to a Transfer Agreement acceptable to Tottenham in its sole discretion."