October 1 – Brazilian superstar Neymar owes more unpaid tax than any other individual on a Spanish authorities’ blacklist, with debts of €34.6 million according to official documentation.
The paperwork, entitled ‘List of Debtors’, includes thousands of individuals and companies with “more than one million euros in debt”.
Neymar, who played for Barcelona from 2013 to 2017 before moving to Paris St Germain for 222m euros in the most expensive transfer in history, tops the list of thousands of names published on the website of the Spanish tax office.
Ever since last year, according to Spanish media, the country’s tax authorities have been pursuing Neymar for fiscal fraud dating back to his time at Barca.
The Spanish tax office, contacted by AFP, did not say whether Neymar’s presence on the list was linked to his 2013 transfer to Barcelona from Brazilian club Santos.
After a long-running saga, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July cleared Barcelona of any wrongdoing after Santos had launched an appeal claiming they were owed €61,295,000 in compensation and damages.
The on-off transfer has been shrouded in controversy from the beginning. The Catalan side claimed they signed Neymar from Santos for €17 million, though it was later revealed that the total fee came to considerably more. The Brazilian club alleged Barca had broken the rules with payments made to Neymar’s father and the family company N&N. However, CAS ruled Barca did not act illegally.
Meanwhile, Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez will not be sanctioned by the French Football League following an allegation of racism made against him by Neymar.
Neymar was sent off for striking Gonzalez in a bad-tempered Ligue 1 game against Marseille on September 13 in which a total of five players were dismissed. He later accused his opponent of racism but the LFP said it did not have “sufficient convincing evidence” to support the claim.
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