The president of Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu revealed to the media that despite doing everything correctly, it’s frustrating and embarrassing being accused of tax fraud due to the transfer of Neymar.
Bartomeu said: “Barcelona acted in the proper way but if somebody thinks that there is damage to the name of Barcelona then there is damage to be repaired. We are not happy with the situation but we will defend our club very strongly. It’s embarrassing because we think we are right. We think we did things properly, that everything was done in the correct and best way.”
Neymar’s transfer from Santos to Barcelona led to Sandro Rosell having to resign from his position at the club as well as having investigations done which concluded in the revelations of the Catalan club having paid more than €71 million and not the €48 million which they had initially stated.
All of this has affected the image that Barcelona has been developing with the world around of them but even after everything that was announced and confirmed surrounding the transfer and the club, Bartomeu says that they will keep taking care and defending Barcelona. They aren’t doing too badly as they are still challenging for La Liga, and into the quarters of the Champion’s League – in fact they are the most backed team according to Completebetting.com’s list of free bets.
Bartomeu added: “We paid because of prudence, because there is a possible different interpretation. So we want to be prudent. We don’t want to take any risks. Barca is a very well-known brand name in the world and we have to take care of Barca of the club and doing this is prudent situation to keep the good image of our club. We don’t agree with the judge, of course. For us, this is an absurd and unfair situation because we did everything correctly in signing Neymar to FC Barcelona.”
After everything that was done, some people are beginning to question whether or not Neymar was worth all the money and trouble that Barcelona had to go through in order to add him into the club.