Neymar joined Barcelona in 2013 from Santos. A case was filed in the court of Barcelona alleging irregularities in this party transfer. After the case has been going on for so long, Neymar has been accused by the court of fraud and corruption. The hearing of this case will continue for two weeks from October 17 in the Barcelona court.
The World Cup will start on November 21 in Qatar. His earlier suspension in the month will be a big blow for the Brazil star. News agency AFP reported that, along with Neymar, his father and mother, two former presidents of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, will also stand trial in the same case.
Neymar joined PSG for a record €222 million in 2017 after four seasons at Barca. The allegation of irregularities arose from his transfer from Santos to Barca. Neymar’s rights to stay at Santos were owned by Brazilian firm DIS. This institution raised the complaint of irregularities. Barcelona then officially announced that Neymar was bought for 5 million 71 million euros. Of this, 4 million euros were received by Neymar’s family and 1 million 71 million euros went to Santos.
But Spanish lawyers said that Barca actually spent 83.3 million euros to buy Neymar. Out of the 1 crore 71 million euros that Santos received, DIS received 6.8 million euros. The agency has accused Barca and Neymar of concealing the real transfer fee. The organization said that they are “satisfied” that a date has been fixed for the hearing of the trial after the matter has been pending in the court for so long. The complaint was filed in a Spanish court in 2016.
Lawyers have appealed for Neymar to be sentenced to two years in prison.
However, Neymar has been claiming since the beginning that he has been blindly trusting his father with only football and team transfer issues surrounding all his attention. His father is his agent. In 2014, Rosell resigned as Barca president due to corruption. Josep Maria Bartomeu took over as president from him. He is also accused of corruption.
According to a document published in 2020, Neymar has the highest tax arrears among all the accused on the “black list” of the Spanish tax authorities. However, the tax authority did not say anything about whether the PSG forward’s name in this blacklist is related to his transfer from Santos to Barca.
Barca paid a fine of 5.5 million euros in 2016 to avoid facing tax evasion charges related to Neymar joining Barca. Bartomeu, who was then Barca president, said it was because of a “mistake in tax planning”.Neymar is also accused of tax evasion in Brazil. A few days ago, the 30-year-old forward returned from Japan on a pre-season tour with PSG. PSG will play another pre-season preparation match against Nantes in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
