Neymar's secret contract

Posted Friday, October 24, 2014 by Marca.com

Jordi Cases has come to an agreement with Barcelona, resulting in him withdrawing the proceedings that he himself initiated against Rosell. One of the reasons behind this agreement can be found in documentation that the club provided the judge with, more specifically in the reports from Board meetings prior to the agreement with Neymar.

Barcelona sent four reports, totalling 57 sheets. They were all signed by the club president, who was Rosell at the time, and the board secretary, Freixa. All apart from one that is. Interestingly, this was the annex that included Neymar's contract, with all the sums to be received by the player. That document was never officially addressed by the board. The subject became even more complicated later, because the club tried to get Freixa to sign the annex a posteriori, but he refused. Despite Freixa refusing to sign it, the document was sent to the judge.

Barca didn't follow regulations for serving documents for this form of legal proceedings. There are two ways of doing so. One of these is that the secretary of the board signs a document attesting that the photocopies that are presented are identical to the originals. The other is that the original documents are supplied to the judiciary, and in this case the secretary there compares them and gives his approval.

Presumed procedural failings
Neither of these processes was adhered to and as a result there was a document at the court that was not signed by anyone from the Board. This led to suspicion that the operation was never addressed by the board and that this was a transfer completed by Rosell on his own. On no occasion was the board informed about the other contracts involved for sponsorship or scouting.

This opened a new unexpected front for Barcelona to deal with in the case, because Izquierdo issued an order for Bartomeu to make a statement on the subject. This forced the club to react quickly, and pressure was applied for an agreement to be reached so the case could be closed.