Barca slams Liverpool's price for Coutinho

LONDON - A leading Barcelona board member claimed Liverpool set an asking price of $238 million for midfielder Philippe Coutinho as the Catalan giant criticized the rampant inflation in the soccer transfer market on Saturday.

Albert Soler, Barca's director of institutional relations, said the club's beleaguered board would not put the future of the institution at risk by bending to excessive demands.

"Liverpool put a price of $238 million on a player that we wanted," Soler said at a media conference held to explain Barca's haphazard signing policy this summer.