Barcelona winger Neymar has been ordered to stand trial in Spain for fraud relating to his controversial transfer from Brazilian club Santos.
Barca fought off interest from a number of clubs across Europe to secure Neymar’s signature in 2013, for a fee originally thought to be around £49million.
However, it has since emerged that the actual fee paid for the Brazilian was closer to £71.5m – prompting an investigation by the Spanish authorities over allegations of fraud.
Brazilian investment company DIS argue that they are owed 40 per cent of the additional fee, as they owned that percentage of the midfielder’s image rights at the time of his transfer to Catalonia.
DIS believe it was cheated out of a percentage of their share of the deal, due to collusion between Barcelona, Santos and Neymar.
The Spanish prosecutor’s office claims the deal altered ‘the free market of football players by preventing the player from entering the market in accordance with the rules of free competition’.
Last year, prosecutors recommended that Neymar receive a two-year jail sentence and a fine of €10million (£8.54m) if found guilty.
They are also seeking a five-year sentence for former club president Sandro Rosell, who resigned over the scandal in 2014.
Rosell’s successor, Josep Maria Bartomeu, was also charged with tax fraud in 2015 and is set to stand trial after his final appeal was rejected by a Spanish court earlier this month.
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