Court confirms Neymar corruption acquittal over Barcelona transfer

Spain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday announced it had confirmed the acquittal of Neymar and former Barcelona presidents of corruption charges centred on the Brazil star’s 2013 transfer to the Catalan giants.

Brazilian sports investment firm DIS initially took legal action in 2015, saying it lost out financially on Neymar’s transfer because it owned 40 percent of his sporting rights when he was a young prospect at Santos FC.

DIS said the true value of the deal had been obscured by those involved and that it was not informed of the existence of an exclusivity contract in 2011 between Neymar and Barcelona.

But a Spanish court acquitted all defendants — including Neymar, his parents and former Barcelona presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell — of corruption and fraud in a highly publicised trial in 2022.

Santos, its former president Odilio Rodrigues Filho and N&N — the company founded by Neymar’s parents to manage his career — were also cleared.

DIS appealed the verdict, but the Supreme Court said “the proven facts have revealed the inconsistency of the accusation”.

“There was neither an offence of corruption in business dealings nor improper fraud, neither by the player, his representatives nor FC Barcelona,” the court said in a statement.

“It was all due to a sporting decision by the club, which wanted to ensure his signing and then decided to bring it forward,” it added, with several rival teams coveting Neymar at the time.

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.

Prosecutors had initially sought a two-year jail term and a 10-million-euro fine for Neymar, but in a surprise move they dropped corruption and fraud charges against all the accused.

Neymar, who is now back at Santos, also faced tax fraud allegations deriving from the same transfer. That affair ended in 2016, when Barcelona paid a fine of 5.5 million euros in a deal with prosecutors.