Neymar, Rosell and Bartomeu, on trial for their contract with Barça

Neymar, the parents of the Brazilian soccer player and the former presidents of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu will be tried from October 17 at the Provincial Court of Barcelona for alleged corruption in their contract with the Barça club in 2013. In the trial, which will be held in seven sessions until October 31, the defendants face prison sentences, following the complaint filed by the Brazilian company DIS, which had 40% of Neymar’s federal rights and considers itself cheated for not charging what that corresponded to him when the transfer of the player to Barça from Santos was completed.

The Prosecutor’s Office requests two years in prison for Neymar, as many for his father and one for the mother of the footballer who currently plays for Paris Saint-Germain. It also asks for the payment of a fine of ten million euros, while DIS raises Neymar’s jail request to five years. as for his parents, and requests that he be disqualified from playing football for the same period of time. The Brazilian company, a private prosecution in the ‘Neymar case’, also calls for prison for Rosell and Bartomeu (eight years for each of them), who held the positions of president and vice president of Barcelona when the Barça club carried out the negotiations for sign the footballer

Both DIS and the Spanish Prosecutor’s Office consider that crimes of corruption between individuals and simulated contract fraud were committed during the operations carried out between 2011 and 2013 that culminated in the transfer of Neymar to Barcelona from Santos. The ex-director of Santos Odilio Rodrígues and, as legal entities, the Catalan club, the Brazilian and N & N Consultoría Esportiva, a company owned by the Neymar family, will also be tried for his participation in the ‘Neymar case’.

Specialized in the football market, DIS acquired 40% of Neymar’s rights in 2009, when he bought them in exchange for some two million euros, and after the footballer’s transfer to Barça, he estimates that he was deceived by the footballer himself , his relatives and the Barça club, for which he claims compensation of more than 150 million euros. Like the Prosecutor’s Office, DIS considers that Neymar and his father signed two simulated contracts with Barcelona in 2011 and ignored that the footballer’s rights belonged to Santos and said company.

“Barcelona and the player broke the FIFA rules and altered free competition in the transfer market,” underlines DIS, which this Wednesday showed its “satisfaction for the oral start of the so-called ‘Neymar case’.” “In this process, the Federation of Professional Athletes Associations of Brazil (FAAP) also considers that their rights, established for social purposes and consisting of a percentage of transfer rights, were equally violated by the accused,” said DIS, which belongs to to Grupo Sonda, a group of companies from various sectors such as supermarkets, gas stations or real estate that has more than 10,000 employees in Brazil.