Neymar: Barcelona consider reporting PSG over 222m euros deal
By Saj Chowdhury | BBC Sport |
Barcelona expect Neymar to return to training on Wednesday, but are ready to push for a Financial Fair Play investigation if Paris St-Germain pay the 222m euros (£198m) release clause for the Brazil forward.
The 25-year-old continues to be linked with a move to the Ligue 1 club and is due to return from China on Tuesday.
Reports said the player was due in Qatar this week for a PSG medical.
Barca chief Josep Maria Bartomeu said last week that Neymar would be staying.
His comments came after reports that PSG had triggered the release clause, which would be a world record fee for a player.
Should that sum be offered, the 24-time Spanish champions will ask Uefa to consider whether the French club would be in breach of FFP regulations.
In an interview with Mundo Deportivo at the weekend, La Liga president Javier Tebas threatened a legal response against the former French champions if European football’s governing body failed to take action. He also said that PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi had been made aware of the Spanish league’s intentions.
“We will [make a complaint about PSG] because they infringe Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules and also the European Union’s competition rules,” he said.
“We will make a complaint to Uefa and if they don’t do anything we will take it to the competition tribunals in Switzerland and Brussels. And, from there, we don’t rule out going through the courts in France and Spain.”
He added: “Two months ago I met the president of PSG at La Liga’s offices and I told him what we were going to do and the reasons why.
“He was angry with me and said that he did not understand. We have a relationship [through Qatar sports channel BeIn] for Spanish football, but La Liga must defend our clubs in these situations.”
Uefa: ‘Neymar purchase would affect PSG finances’
European football’s governing body says it has yet to receive a complaint, adding that it would look into details of a transfer, regardless, to ensure it respected FFP guidelines.
In a statement to the BBC, it said: “We are not in a position to stop clubs from buying players, but the clubs will face sanctions if they fail to abide by Financial Fair Play rules.
“The impact of a potential transfer of Neymar to PSG would have an effect on the club finances over several years.
“It is very difficult to judge this type of operation in advance as we do not know the plans of the French club. They could well sell a few players for a similar or even superior amount. Sanctions would be applied if the club has demonstrated that they have losses of over 30m euros (£26.81m) over three years.”
Any future punishment for PSG could range from a fine to exclusion from competition.
However, Uefa did state that in “numerous cases” the objectives of FFP can be best achieved with a “rehabilitative approach rather than a punitive approach”.
The FFP rules, first implemented during the 2011-12 season, stipulate that European clubs cannot spend more than they earned.
PSG, supported by a Qatar fund, were punished in 2014 for breach of FFP. Their £167m commercial contract with the Qatar Tourism Authority was deemed to have an unfair value by Uefa’s independent investigation panel.
They were given a £20m fine, their spending was capped to £49m and they competed in the 2014-15 Champions League with just 21 players instead of the usual 25.
Current FFP regulations – updated in June 2015 – state that owners can inject cash into a club as long as they can demonstrate how they will reach break-even. And a club will also have to ensure that their losses do not exceed 30m euros (£26.81m) over three seasons.
