Barca Pays Spanish Tax Authorities Over Neymar Transfer

Barcelona on Monday made an $18.6 million payment to the Spanish tax authorities related to last year’s acquisition of Neymar with a viewto settling the legal dispute that has highlighted the complex Web of payments sometimes used by soccer clubs to sign players. Barca made the voluntary payment only one day after Spanish judgePablo Ruz accepted a lawsuit accusing former President Sandro Rosell of misappropriating money as part of the transfer. Last week, Ruz indicted the Catalan giant forsuspected tax fraud. Rosell has since resigned as Barca President.

In spite of all this, Barca emphasized on Monday that it has not violated any law insigning Neymar last summer and would continue to defend itself in the case. It is unclear whether the voluntary tax payment will be sufficient to end the Spanish court case. Meanwhile, Neymar’s former employer, Santos, has also accused the player’s father and agent, Neymar Senior, of keeping the Brazilian club inthe dark about a separate financial deal that he struck with Barcelona regarding his son’s transfer.

Separately, Ruz, who is in charge of the Spanishcase, asked the Swiss authorities last week to request all the documents that FIFA, soccer’s governing body, received relating to Neymar’s contract. However, FIFA, which is based inZurich, said earlier this month that it would not directly hand over such documents to the judge without a formal request being first lodged in Switzerland.