Johannesburg, Sep 05 : Coaching icon and former Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, says huge sums spent on football transfers nowadays is part and parcel of the sport.

Ferguson, 72, who retired in May 2013 after 26 years as United boss, said that spending obscene amounts of money for transfer of football players was part of the game.

Ferguson made the comments after a recent study revealed that transfer fee inflation in Europe's top leagues had hit 16 percent, and that his old club Manchester United paid tens of millions of euros above market rates for top purchase Angel di Maria, Sport24 reports.

After chairing two days of closed-door talks with top coaches at the base of European football governing body UEFA , Ferguson opined that the tradition of splurging money to acquire players was never going to change.

He said the world is progressing and so are the transfer fees, and added that he was fortunate not to be involved at the forefront of the game. (ANI)