Neymar’s Transfer Saga Is Embarrassing – Barca President, Josep Maria Bartomeu

Barcelona’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu has conceded that the entire saga about the Neymar’s transfer has been embarrassing as he insisted the Spanish giants did nothing wrong.

Barcelona was accused of tax fraud over Neymar’s transfer by Spanish authorities. In February, Barca was accused of evading £7.58m in taxes after purchasing the Brazilian forward from Santos in June 2013.

Penultimate week, a judge decided investigation about the saga should continue. Barcelona went ahead to make a “voluntary contribution” of more than £11m in taxes. That payment however seems not to be the end of the criminal investigation.

“It’s embarrassing because we think we are right,”

“We think we did things properly, that everything was done in the correct and best way,” Bartomeu said

He revealed that his club is sad about the situation and vowed that the management will defend the club:

“Barcelona acted in the proper way but if somebody thinks that there is damage to the name of Barcelona then there is damage to be repaired.”

“We are not happy with the situation but we will defend our club very strongly.”

He revealed that the club does not agree with the judge and promised that the image of the club will be preserved

“We paid because of prudence, because there is a possible different interpretation. So we want to be prudent. We don’t want to take any risks.

“Barca is a very well known brand name in the world and we have to take care of Barca of the club and doing this is prudent situation to keep the good image of our club.

“We don’t agree with the judge, of course. For us, this is an absurd and unfair situation because we did everything correctly in signing Neymar to FC Barcelona.”