Barcelona president refutes ‘lies’ about court fight with Neymar and rocks while club spent PSG money

This Monday (16) boss BarcelonaJoan Laporta held a press conference to talk about the moment of the Catalan club and took the opportunity to refute the letter written by former president Josep Maria Bartomeu in which he criticized the current administration. One of the points discussed was the supposed “financial exemption” of €16.7 million (103.3 million BRL in current figures) Neymar After a quarrel in court, he explained that it was nothing more than a lie.

at the end of July, Barcelona announced that it had reached an “friendly” agreement with the Brazilian in the Spanish stadiums, for labor and civil cases, thus ending all four lawsuits filed between the parties in the judicial areas. In the letter, Bartomeu stated that, for this to be possible, the current Laporta administration would have forgiven the attacker, who is currently in Paris Saint-Germainin large quantity. The former president made a point.

He said we forgive Neymar with 16.7 million euros. Another lie. Not right. It is necessary to remind him of the damage the Neymar affair has done to our image and our economy. There were a lot of lies. Bartomeu’s board of directors struck a shameful agreement and were concerned with the indictment in which Barcelona was convicted for the first time in history of two tax offenses. In contrast, Mr. Bartomeu and [Sandro] Rosell was acquitted of criminal responsibility, Barcelona paid a fine of 5.5 million euros [R$ 34 milhões]. We had three labor suits from Neymar. There is a fourth procedure, when Neymar demanded compensation, Barcelona filed a civil lawsuit for 10.2 million euros. [R$ 63,1 milhões] Neymar won the refusal, and this action had to go to the Labor Department, as it was determined that no action was taken by Bartomeu’s management, so this 10.2 million euros cannot be claimed. “We will not forgive 16 million euros for Neymar,” Laporta said.

Also regarding the Brazilian, the current president also mentioned the club’s “disastrous” sporting policy under Bartomeu, who disproportionately spent the €222 million (R$819 million in figures at the time) that Paris Saint-Germain paid to appoint Neymar, in 2017. .

The seventh point of the letter refers to the fact that salaries have gone up because they could not compete with other clubs and the Premier League. What is certain is that sports policy has been disastrous. Since Neymar was sold for €222m, they have spent disproportionately and at the speed of light. This leads to salaries and depreciation. And here we are. The proof is that this sport did not benefit us. They needed to change the model [de gestão] We believe in La Masia [categorias de base do Barcelona]”, Been completed.

During this period, under the management of Bartomeu, the Catalan club signed in great numbers and brought in players such as Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and even Philippe Coutinho, who despite the high investment did not live up to expectations and only increased Barcelona’s debt. .