Barça paid €95m for Neymar, €38m more than disclosed
The plot thickens as Sandro Rosell’s reputation has taken a blow over the NeymarGate affair in which the Barça president is embroiled.
It turns out that FC Barcelona actually paid €95 million for Neymar, which is €38m more than the €57m officially reported by Barça president Sandro Rosell. According to Spanish newspaper ‘El Mundo’, this is the fee that is shown in the contracts signed between his ex club Santos and the Brazilian player, copies of which are now in the possession of the Spanish High Court.
Eduardo Inda and Esteban Urreiztieta, journalists from the above-mentioned newspaper, refer to seven documents stretching over the period from November 2011 to September 2013. They bring to light three previously undisclosed agreements that saw Neymar’s family trouser millions of euros in commission.
Around €2m was paid to the Brazilian’s father to scout out new talent for Santos FC, the club which is based in the neighbourhood of Vila Belmiro where the youngster made his name. Another €4m went toward to securing advertising contracts with Brazilian companies, while another €2.5m was given to the 21-year-old’s family to put towards social causes, particularly in the shape of aid for the children from the favelas of São Paulo.
The Daily Mail has an interesting headline headline stating “How Barcelona are in deep water with the taxman and was Neymar (not £86m Bale) the biggest transfer of all time?”
They say: If the alleged extra payments made to Neymar & Neymar or linked companies are interpreted as disguised wages they take the players’ earnings to around £12.5m annually. If that is the case then Messi will want to know why he is no longer the club’s top earner.
And the Spanish tax authorities will want to know why they are receiving 52% of 6m and not 52% of 15m?
Barcelona say they have been guilty of nothing more than ‘ingeniería negocial’, a phrase which translates as business engineering – in other words making the most of existing loopholes, bending rules at most; and certainly not breaking them.
Bitacoras.com
The plot is certainly thickening at the Camp Nou after revelations from Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” that FC Barcelona actually paid €95m for the Brazilian.