BarcelonaThis Monday, the trial of the Neymar-DIS case begins in the High Court of Barcelona. It is a process that began when the DIS investment fund, which owns part of Neymar’s federation rights, considered that it had received a lower figure than it was entitled to for the player’s transfer to Barça in 2013 After many years of investigation, the case finally comes to trial. These are the keys to understanding it.
What is the Neymar-DIS case?
The link between Neymar and DIS began in 2009, when the Brazilian player had not yet made his professional debut. The DIS investment fund acquired 40% of the footballer’s federation rights by paying 2 million euros to Santos. In return, he would receive 40% of the sale of Neymar to a club in the future. This sale took place in 2013 to Barça. Now, there is a dance of numbers. Barça declared at the time that it had paid 57 million. Instead, only 17 corresponded strictly to federation rights, as the rest were a bonus – a kind of signing bonus – for the N&N company, owned by the player’s parents. It later became known that there were a series of parallel contracts between Barça and Santos. And, also, that other income had been made between Barça and Neymar. The total of the operation, according to DIS, is 82 million. So this mutual fund, which collected 6.8 million in 2013 (40% of 17 million), feels that it should have collected almost 33.
Who are the defendants?
The actors directly involved in the signing of Neymar by Barça. In other words, apart from the footballer himself, Neymar Junior, his parents, Neymar and Nadine, owners of the N&N agency, which negotiated the contract and collected the bonuses, also sit in the dock. Also accused are Sandro Rosell, then president of Barça; Josep Maria Bartomeu, who was sporting vice president in 2013, and Odilio Rodrigues, the former president of Santos. On the other hand, there are three legal entities: Barça, Santos and the company N&N.
Can they end up in jail?
The defendants face a minimum of two years in prison and, if convicted, could have to serve time there. In the case of the Brazilian footballer, the Prosecutor’s Office is asking for two years in prison and a fine of 10 million euros, while DIS, the whistleblowers, raise the request for imprisonment for Neymar to five years. They also want the footballer to be banned for that same time. But the highest penalty is for Sandro Rosell: the prosecutor’s office requests five years in prison and DIS, eight. The complainants are asking for the same sentence for Josep Maria Bartomeu, but the Prosecutor’s Office excuses him because he considers that there is no evidence that the then vice-president of Barça was involved in the negotiations for the signing of the Brazilian star. DIS also asks for five years in prison for the footballer’s father and mother, while the Public Prosecutor’s Office reduces it to two years, in the case of the father, and one in the case of the mother.
Who else will be at the trial?
During the two and a half weeks that the trial will last, several former managers of Barça, Santos and the complaining company will parade through the Barcelona Court, such as the former Barça vice-president Xavier Faus, the former general manager Antoni Rosich or the former sports director Andoni Zubizarreta. But the star witness is the president of Madrid, Florentino Pérez, who will testify as a witness on Tuesday morning. As a witness, Florentino will have to answer all the questions put to him by accusations and defenses and is obliged to tell the truth. Of course, he will be allowed to testify electronically and will not have to travel all the way to Barcelona, saving himself the media exposure and the photograph sitting on the dais of a court.
Why is the trial held in Barcelona?
When DIS filed the complaint, Neymar was a Barça player and resided in Barcelona. At that time, the Catalan club considered that it was only a conflict between Santos and DIS, and proposed to be excluded and that the alleged crime be judged directly in Brazil. But DIS also accuses Barça and that is why the crime was transferred to the National Court. Initially, the case was to be tried in Madrid. However, Neymar, Bartomeu and Rosell requested that he move to Barcelona, since the contract had been signed in the Catalan capital. The National Court granted the request remembering that, for an alleged crime to be tried there, it must have been committed entirely abroad. In this case, the documentation is signed in Barcelona.
How is the trial structured?
The magnitude of the trial, with two accusations, nine defendants and their defenses, twenty witnesses and a media impact with few precedents (one of them would be the Messi trial) has forced the sixth section of the Court of Barcelona to change room The hearing, with the public, will take place in a jury room, although the tables now occupied by members of the People’s Court will be for the defense of the accused. This, however, will make the scene more grandiloquent: the jury rooms are two stories high and are located in the noblest part of the Barcelona courthouse. The platform is surrounded by columns, separated from the public by a wooden fence and windows decorated with stained glass. All of this will make the trial much more like the American format that everyone has in their imagination thanks to Hollywood movies.
The room is presided over by three magistrates: José Manuel del Amo Sánchez (the president of the room), Jorge Obach Martínez and Miguel Ángel Ogando Delgado. To his right will sit the accusations (the Prosecutor’s Office and the complainants, DIS), and then the defenses. The nine defendants will stand just below him, to the left and right of the court, and when they have to speak, they will do so with their backs to the public, in a chair provided right in the center of the court, facing the magistrates.
A total of seven sessions are scheduled in the morning and afternoon. Monday will begin with preliminary questions and the first witnesses. Although Neymar, Rosell and Bartomeu can already be seen in the dock, they will not testify until Friday, already in the final stage of the trial. In case they decide to answer all the parties (unlike the witnesses, they are not obliged to do so) two interrogation sessions have been planned. The hearing will end on the 31st with the conclusions, the final reports of the parties and the last turn to speak for the defendants, which is reserved for them to make, if they wish, a final argument.
When will there be a verdict?
There is no specific deadline for the court to issue a ruling. When the trial ends, the magistrates will retire to deliberate. One of them has the function of drafting the sentence and all three must agree when agreeing on the main points of the opinion. Because this is a complex case, the ruling can take months to arrive and run into hundreds of pages.
What happened in the other judicial conflicts between Neymar and Barça?
It is not the first time that Barça and Neymar end up in court. In fact, the Neymar-DIS case has also been popularly known as Neymar II. The first, the Neymar I case, was what put on the table these parallel contracts between the Catalan club and Santos, derived from the 2013 contract. On that occasion, Barça accepted a sentence and a fine, while former presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell were exonerated. The last legal conflict was when Neymar left Barça and claimed to collect a gratuity owed to him. The case, closed in 2021, ended with an agreement between the parties.
