La Liga rejects Neymar's €222m transfer fee, but Barça forward can still join PSG
Thursday, August 3, 2017 @ 4:50 PM
LA LIGA has blocked an attempt to force Neymar to pay his own record €222 million transfer fee to break off his contract with FC Barcelona and move to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), calling it 'financial doping'.
The 25-year-old Brazilian, whose purchase price from FC Santos in his home country was already among the highest in history and has since led to Barça falling foul of the Spanish tax authorities, travelled to Madrid yesterday to hand over his contract release fee.
But the Spanish premier league, or La Liga, rejected the cash, saying the player's payment breached UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.
These rules came into effect six years ago, and forbid any club in Europe from spending €30m or more in excess of what they earn.
Paris Saint-Germain is funded by the State of Qatar, and La Liga chair Javier Tebas has criticised the club for 'financial doping', a form of 'unfair' competition used by State-supported teams that, according to Tebas 'could destabilise professional football in Europe'.
Neymar is still free to sign up with PSG, since in cases such as these the FIFA grants a provisional transfer.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com