Barcelona come out victorious in the court of law.
The long, drawn out legal between Barcelona and Neymar has come to an end as the courts rule in favor of the Catalan club.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the ruling means that the ex-Barcelona star must now pay his former club €6.7 million.
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The origin of the lawsuit stems from Neymar believing he was owed €43.6 million for renewing with the club back in 2016. Barcelona countered that they did not have to pay that signing bonus because he left for PSG less than a year after signing his new contract.
In their eyes, it was a breach of contract and the judge appears to have seen it the same way.
In a statement, Barça said,
"“We express our satisfaction with the verdict announced today by Social Court 15 in relation to the lawsuit involving FC Barcelona and the player Neymar Jr regarding the amount of the signing bonus in the final renewal of the player’s contract.”“The ruling has fully dismissed the player’s claim for payment of €43.6 million, and has accepted a large part of the defence presented by FC Barcelona, as a result of which the player must return €6.7 million to the club.Source: ESPN"
They ended their statement acknowledging that Neymar has the option to appeal, which he may very well do, and that they will continue to defend their interests should he do so.
It’s a significant victory for a club who is mired in financial uncertainty at the moment. Their huge investments on a small number of players after Neymar’s departure has hampered them in several ways.
During lockdown, they needed the players to take a significant pay cut, which they did, and there were reports prior to the restart that they were going to ask them to do the same.
Not needing to pay the rest of the signing bonus helps them financially and allows them to save a little bit of face administratively as the current board has come under a lot of criticism for how they run the club.
Any hope of a reunion goes out the window.
With the ruling, and if it holds up, one has to assume that it puts an end to any speculation of the Brazilian possibly going back to Barcelona.
The amount that PSG would want for Neymar exceeds what they can pay as demonstrated by the negotiations prior to the start of the season. This latest ruling is certainly only going to sour an already strained relationship.
We will more than likely need to wait until a ruling is made on a prospective appeal before we can close the book on this chapter. A chapter that has gone on long enough on a player that chose to leave and seemingly has regretted that decision ever since.