Paris Saint-Germain and former Barcelona star Neymar has been cleared of corruption and fraud charges by a Spanish court.
Neymar was standing trial for a controversial and highly contentious transfer from his former club in Brazil Dos Santos to Spanish giant Barcelona.
Neymar joined Barcelona from Dos Santos, his then parent club in 2013.
Brazil-based firm DIS and Spanish prosecutors charged Neymar, his father, and the N&N firm to court for alleged fraudulent tinkering on the value for which Barcelona bought the PSG Star from Dos Santos back in 2013.
Also indicted by Spanish authorities in the case are Neymar’s father and Barcelona former President Santos
The prosecutors have been on the throats of Neymar and his family for allegedly short-changing and understating the actual value for which he was bought from Dos Santos.
The Brazilian company owned 40 percent of the rights to Neymar’s transfer amount based on the arrangement and agreement they reportedly reached with his father.
The 40% acreage to DIS was allegedly bought by the investment company, which later hit out and sought redress in court for alleged manipulation of Neymar’s sale value as paid by Barcelona.
However, the Spanish court said in a statement on Tuesday that ‘it has not been proven that there was a false contract or that DIS was intended to be harmed.’
While the DIS appeared to lose out from the court verdict, the Spanish prosecutors who waded into the case have decided to back down by withdrawing all charges against Neymar.
The decision by the Spanish prosecutors to drop charges against Neymar and his family watered down the legal battle leaving DIS as the only plaintiff in the trial.
Initially, the lawyers of DIS demanded a five-year prison term for Neymar. The demand was then reduced to 2 and a half years after Spanish prosecutors backed off.
Neymar’s denied any wrongdoing saying he did not remember whether he took part.. or not in the deal that saw him join Barcelona.
Barcelona reportedly reached a decision to sign Neymar in 2011 – a deal that materialized two years later in 2013.
After DIS initiated the cases against the Brazil international, Neymar had already joined PSG from the La Liga giants for £190million in 2017.
During the trial, Neymar had to travel from France to Barcelona court in Barcelona.
The probe of Neymar’s transfer started in 2015 with a complaint filed by DIS, a Brazilian company that owned 40 per cent of the player’s sporting rights when he was at Santos.
Barcelona had maintained that the transfer cost £49million, but prosecutors believe it was at least £71million.
The club said it paid £34million to N&N and £15million to Santos, of which £5.8million was given to DIS.
But DIS alleged that Neymar, Barcelona, and the Brazilian club colluded to mask the actual cost of the deal.
Former Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu, Sandro Roselle, are among the other defendants, including ex-Santos boss Odilio Rodrigues Filho.
Neymar had earlier told the court in the trial, ”my father has always been in charge of contract negotiations.”
He was asked whether he had participated in negotiations for a contract he signed in November 2011 while he was still at Brazilian boyhood club Santos, where he agreed to play for Barcelona – the club he moved to in 2013.
Neymar initially responded: ‘I don’t remember before adding in response to a second question from the state prosecutor about negotiations and contracts: ‘I didn’t participate. It was always my father who looked after that and was responsible for that. I sign what he tells me to.’
Neymar also added ‘I had offers from other clubs, but my dream was always Barcelona. Real Madrid was one of the options, but my heart was always for Barcelona.’
Neymar’s stated this after Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, who served as a witness, told the court Real Madrid had made an offer worth 45 million Euros to sign the Brazilian International in 2011 before he opted to join Barcelona.
Florentine said, ‘I don’t know Neymar, I’ve never spoken with him personally.
‘We were interested in signing Neymar about 10 years ago. Players go where they want. Neymar wanted to go to Barcelona, and that’s why he went to Barcelona.’
After his Barcelona spell, Neymar joined PSG under controversial circumstances, with Barcelona refusing to pay his contract extension bonus.
In 2017, Neymar and the Catalan club finally reached an amicable solution to their faceoff after both parties sued and countersued each other.
The fraud charges by the DIS is one of the many challenges that have bedeviled the career of the PSG talisman, who appeared to have now conquered all the travails with a superb form at PSG.
