A fortnight ago Barcelona made a voluntary contribution of more than £11 million in taxes after a judge decided the investigation into Neymar’s transfer from Santos to FC Barcelona should continue.
When Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu spoke to the BBC in an exclusive interview he revealed that the Catalan team made this payment to protect the image of the club.
Bartomeu was adamant that nothing unjust was done in the transfer that took the Brazilian superstar to Spain.
Barcelona’s president said: “We paid because of prudence, because there is a possible different interpretation. So we want to be prudent. We don’t want to take any risks.
“Barca is a very well known brand name in the world and we have to take care of Barca of the club and doing this is prudent situation to keep the good image of our club.
“We don’t agree with the judge, of course. For us, this is absurd and unfair situation because we did everything correctly in signing Neymar to FC Barcelona.”
Barcelona said at the time of Neymar’s transfer that it was worth £48.6 million but documents have shown it was closer to £71 million. It seems this will be a saga that runs for quite some time.
