A Spanish prosecutor said that Barcelona and former President Sandro Rosell "should stand trial" for evading about $10.2M in taxes in the signing of Neymar, according to Alex Duff of BLOOMBERG. Prosecutor Jose Perals said in a written filing at the National Court that the club and Rosell "committed two crimes against the Spanish treasury, with Rosell responsible for a further company crime." He added that current Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu "should also be investigated" after Barcelona "failed to withhold" €2.8M in taxes last year on income paid to N&N Consultoria, a company owned by Neymar's parents. In February '14, after the National Court opened an investigation, Barcelona paid €13.6M to tax authorities to cover a "possible shortfall in its signing of Neymar." The club denied any wrongdoing in a statement at the time, saying it had "scrupulously" fulfilled its tax obligations. According to Perals, Barcelona and Rosell "failed to withhold income tax" at a rate of 24.75% attributable to a non-resident on payments to Neymar and N&N Consultoria in '11 and '13 while he was in Brazil (BLOOMBERG, 2/2).
STILL ENTANGLED: In Madrid, Sergio Fernández wrote despite statements from Rosell, Barcelona and Neymar's father, Bartomeu is "still unable to completely disassociate himself from controversy surrounding Neymar's signing." Until now, the story was that Bartomeu "signed all the contracts just because of his position in the club," but that he did not "really know the ins and outs of what he was signing." The story goes that this was an "almost automatic process" in bringing Neymar in for €57M (supposedly). However Perals has noticed debts with the Spanish Treasury in '14, after Rosell's resignation. Bartomeu "had better have very solid explanations" for Barcelona's "voluntary" payment of more than €13M to "try and bring investigations to a conclusion" (MARCA, 2/2).
REACHING A DEAL: SPORT reported sources close to the National Court "said that they could be willing to reach an agreement with the club as an alternative to going to trial." The court, the sources said, "would be willing to drop the charges against Barcelona and its president if the club admits its error" and agrees to pay the €12M ($13.6M) that it failed to pay, plus the corresponding sanction (SPORT, 2/2).
