Barcelona announced that the sports arbitration court rejected
a case that Brazilian club Santos filed against the Spanish club
in connection with the contract with Brazilian star Neymar
in 2013.
Santos filed a complaint with FIFA in 2015 seeking
compensation of $ 69.21 million after Barcelona paid Neymar’s
father and a family-owned company, before contracting, with
the Brazilian striker for an initial value of 57 million euros.
“The sports court found that the contract between Santos and
Neymar ended with mutual consent and that Barcelona did not
violate the transfer regulations when he paid additional fees
to the player’s father and N&N,” Barcelona declared.
And the press release continued: “Barcelona did not commit
a violation that falls under the fraudulent clause when he signed
an agreement before the transfer with Neymar or when he
signed the same transfer agreement with Santos.”
The statement added that the Sports Court had ordered Santos to
pay Barcelona 20 thousand Swiss francs ($ 21,253) in legal fees.
Neymar’s move from his youth club to Barcelona was marred by
many legal problems, and the Supreme Court in Spain opened
an investigation into allegations of fraud and corruption with
the player who denied any mistakes regarding the value of
the transfer deal.
The investigations also led to the resignation of Barcelona
president Sandro Russell, who then oversaw the conclusion
of the deal from office in 2014.
Neymar enjoyed four years full of titles in Barcelona and
formed a dangerous trio with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez
before joining Paris Saint-Germain in a world record deal worth
222 million euros in 2017.
After that, Neymar filed a lawsuit against the Spanish club over
the alleged dues, but lost the case, and the authorities ordered
him to pay 6.7 million euros to his former club for violating
the terms of their last contract in 2016.
Despite the legal battles, the Brazilian player tried to press for
a return to Barcelona last year and refused to train with Paris
Saint-Germain at some point, but Barcelona failed to meet
the financial demands of the French club.
