BARCELONA — Brazilian football superstar
Neymar was
cleared of corruption charges on Tuesday related to his transfer to Barcelona
from Santos in 2013.
اضافة اعلان
A court in Spain acquitted all nine defendants in the trial.
In addition to Neymar, this included his parents, FC
Barcelona and former club presidents
Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell,
Santos FC and former president Odilio Rodrigues Filho, and N&N — the
company founded by Neymar's parents to manage his career.
Brazilian company DIS had argued they lost out financially
on Neymar's transfer because they owned 40 percent of Neymar's sporting rights
at Santos and believed the true value of the deal had been obscured by those
involved.
"According to the court it has not been proved there
was a false contract or that DIS was intended to be harmed," said the
court in a statement.
Neymar's high-profile trial got underway in mid-October in
Barcelona, just a month before the start of the World Cup in Qatar.
The 30-year-old — who now plays for French champions Paris
Saint-Germain — and Brazil crashed out after a penalty shootout against Croatia
in the quarterfinals.
Prosecutors had initially sought a two-year jail term and a
10-million-euro ($10.5 million) fine for Neymar but in a surprise move they
dropped corruption and fraud charges against all the accused at the end of
October.
Brazilian sports investment firm DIS filed a lawsuit in 2015
alleging it had been defrauded during the player's transfer to
Barcelona.
It claimed Neymar, Barcelona and the Brazilian club colluded
to mask the true cost of his transfer thereby cheating it of its proper share
of the player's transfer.
DIS also argued that it was not informed of the existence of
an exclusivity contract in 2011 between Neymar and Barcelona.
But Spanish prosecutors, which initially shared DIS' view,
later said the firm's allegations were not based on "evidence".
They concluded the case was a matter for civil rather than
criminal justice.
DIS indictment
Even though prosecutors dropped their charges the case
continued because the court was also considering a separate indictment filed by
DIS as it is allowed by Spanish law.
DIS was seeking to recover 35 million euros it claims it was
cheated of.
Barca said the transfer cost 57.1 million euros, with 40
million euros paid to N&N and 17.1 million to Santos, of which 6.8 million
was given to DIS.
Spanish prosecutors initially said they believed the actual
value was at least 83 million euros.
During the trial Neymar said he didn't remember if he took
part in the transfer negotiations, saying he only signed documents presented to
him by his father.
All of the other defendants, including former Barcelona
presidents Bartomeu and Rosell, denied any wrongdoing.
DIS, which owns a chain of supermarkets in Brazil's
Sao Paulo region, initially asked for a five-year prison sentence for
Neymar and his father who is also the player's agent.
But at the end of the trial it called for a revised prison
sentence of two and a half years for Neymar and four years for Neymar's father,
but the defendants were acquitted.
Neymar, who won the
Champions League with Barcelona in 2015,
left for PSG in 2017 for a world-record 222 million euro ($234 million)
transfer fee, with the Parisian side activating his release clause.
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