MADRID.- He Spanish Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal of the Brazilian forward Neymar and the rest of those prosecuted for the alleged irregularities in their signing by the FC Barcelona in 2013, as had already been determined by the Barcelona hearing after the trial held almost four years ago.
In a statement issued this Wednesday, the Spanish high court considered “that the proven facts have reflected the inconsistency of the accusation” that was only exercised by the Brazilian company DIS, owner of 40% of Neymar’s federative rights when he was still a young promise of the Saints.
“There was neither a crime of corruption in business nor improper fraud. Neither by the player nor his representatives nor by FC Barcelona. Everything was due to a sporting decision by the club that wanted to secure his signing and then decided to bring it forward,” the note adds.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, dated April 16, thus endorses the decision of the Barcelona Court, which had already acquitted the player – now 34 years old and back at Santos -, his parents, the former presidents of Barça, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeualready a former leader of the São Paulo club in December 2022.
The beginning of this convoluted judicial saga goes back, however, further back. In 2015, DIS appealed to the Spanish justice system, accusing Barça, the player and his entourage of having deceived him to hide the real amount of the controversial transfer.
Alleged exclusivity contract
DIS, which received 6.8 million euros in the operation, also accused them of not having been informed of an alleged exclusivity contract signed in 2011 with Barça and that would have distorted free competition to acquire the promising attacker.
But neither Public Ministry -who ended up withdrawing his accusations in the final stretch of the trial-, nor did the magistrates later consider the facts as criminal.
After the high-profile trial held in 2022 in Barcelona – and to which Neymar, at that time in the Paris Saint-Germain– The Barcelona Court acquitted the defendants, but DIS decided to appeal.
Neymar’s controversial signing for FC Barcelona in 2013 ended up becoming a tangled legal saga that lasted for years, with several confrontations between the different parties.
