Brazil court asks Santos for Neymar transfer documents
A Sao Paolo court on Tuesday gave the Brazilian club Santos seven days to carefully present evidence of the offers that they received back in 2013 for Neymar that led to his eventual transfer to Barcelona.
Neymar and his father had already appeared before a judge in Madrid just last month to testify in an ongoing investigation into the transfer case. Former and current Barcelona presidents were also consistently questioned by the judge too, as well as many representatives of Santos, all of whom denied any sort of wrongdoing. The Brazilian club now claim they have been hurt in the transfer issue.
DIS, the investment group that formally belongs to investor Delcir Sonda, claimed strongly in Madrid court that it was somewhat financially damaged because all of the entities – Barcelona, Neymar, and Brazilian club Santos withheld the actual amount of the player’s transfer fee back in 2013. DIS says it was entitled to 40 percent of the gross transfer amount.
“We have determined that Santos must present copies of all the proposals received for the Neymar transfer within the next seven days,” the court statement said. “We cannot lose sight of the fact that we suspect innumerable irregularities in the transfer of the player to the Spanish club, and this transfer is undergoing proper investigation through the proper channels.”
Sonda said Neymar’s father tried hard to re-buy Sonda’s 40-percent stake in the Barcelona player for about €4 million ($4.4m). At the relevant time, though, Neymar’s value was already closing on to €60m ($66m), the group said. DIS paid around €2m ($2.2m) for its share on Neymar’s rights. Sonda said he personally felt “cheated” because his family used to have rather deep personal relationship with the young player and also his father.
Neymar has also been facing many problems with Brazil’s tax office, which only last year froze assets related personally to him valuing at about 189 million Brazilian reals ($43m)due to the allegations of tax evasion.