Neymar, Rosell and Bartomeu acquitted in the transfer of Brazilian football player

In the case known as ‘Neymar 2’, the transfer of the striker, for which Barça paid 60 million euros for various concepts to N&N Consultoria Esportiva between 2011 and 2013, was on trial. Santos Club de Fútbol is another 25 million. : 17.1 for the transfer and 7.9 for the preferential option, where the Brazilian team never fulfilled its three promises to the youth and two friendly matches, only one of which was played.

However, the Brazilian investment fund DIS, which is handling the private prosecutionHe only received 6.8 million for the entire operation, despite owning 40% of the striker’s transfer rights. The grounds for suing the defendants acquitted by the Barcelona Court.

The court also exempts from criminal liability. Neymar da Silva senior, father of Neymar and director of N&N family business representing the player and former manager of Santos Odilio Rodrigues.

Petition for acquittal for Bartomeu

In fact, throughout the trial, the prosecution Petition for acquittal for BartomeuWhen he could not see any evidence of crime in the transfer operation, he withdrew the charges against the other defendants in his final decision. As for the actor’s mother and N&N’s manager and husband, N&N’s manager Nadine Gonçalves, DIS finally withdrew his criminal request in their report, though he continued to hold charges for the others involved.

DIS specifically sought a prison sentence of 2.6 years for Neymar and Bartomeu, who was Barça’s vice president of sports at the time, and 4 years for Rosell, the player’s father and then-Catalan club president. Secondly, the former leader of Santos, Odilio Rodrigues, was sentenced to 2 years in prison.

He also requested a fine of 57.48 million euros for FC Barcelona and N&N, and a second fine of the same amount for Santos FC.

However, in the sanction available to EFE, the Barcelona Court does not consider it proven that “one of the purposes of the agreements drawn up to get Neymar to be signed by FC Barcelona was to disappoint DIS’s profit expectations”.

Therefore, with regard to the crime of corruption between individuals, it considers that the DIS “could be harmed civilly, but not a passive subject of the crime understood as the victim or the directly injured party”; this is a condition that other football clubs would have had before; hypothesis was that it was difficult for them to sign the player”.

Regarding improper fraud, the court underlines that: “Contracts that are said to be simulated must necessarily aim to harm DIS”, so “no simulated contract no crime”. The sentence read, “And there is no indication from the evidence obtained that the player was offered a bribe and/or requested to sign with FC Barcelona.”