CAS Dismisses Santos' €61.3m Claim Against Barcelona Over 2013 Neymar Transfer

The claim for damages worth €61.3m from Santos against Barcelona relating to alleged fraud in the 2013 transfer of Neymar and additional payments made to the player’s father and a third party company has been dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The highly contested transfer was first investigated in Spain as early as 2014, with Barcelona and president Josep Maria Bartomeu charged with tax fraud at the time. It was also concluded then that Neymar’s parents had been paid €40m by Barça as part of the deal.

A statement from Barcelona now that Santos’ claim for damages has been thrown out, explained that the court found no fraudulent behaviour in the pre-contract agreement between the Camp Nou club and the player, or the transfer agreement between the two teams.

The statement read, “CAS considers that the contract between Santos and the player was ended by mutual agreement, that FC Barcelona did not infringe any transfer agreement when it paid additional amounts to the father of the player and to the N&N company and that FC Barcelona did not behave in a fraudulent manner when it signed a pre-contract with Neymar Jr nor when it signed a transfer agreement with Santos. 

“The CAS verdict compels Santos to pay FC Barcelona's legal costs, a figure of 20,000 Swiss francs.”

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