Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu has claimed that "anger in Madrid that his club signed Neymar is behind him being personally charged with committing a tax fraud during the transfer," according to Dermot Corrigan of ESPN. On Tuesday, Spanish judge Pablo Ruz accepted a prosecutor's petition that Bartomeu be charged for his role in "allegedly defrauding the Spanish taxpayer" of €2.8M during the deal. Bartomeu said that annoyance in the Spanish capital "at missing out on the player was the initial spur" for all the subsequent legal issues. He said, "I do not want to say so much. Neymar's father has already said that Madrid were after him, and they did not like him coming to Barça. Every time he plays well they charge us. That is the big question. Maybe it is that we have signed Neymar and that triggered movement from someone who did not want him to come to Barcelona. Someone has crossed the red line and we must say 'enough.' There are too many things connected, and it must be stopped. We have done nothing wrong." Asked whether the club had "brought any of this" on itself by "making mistakes during the complicated transfer," Bartomeu said, "Barça did nothing wrong. We signed Neymar advised by great offices like Cuatrecasas. Everything was done well. It does not bother us that they accuse us, but that the judge charges us. That has angered us a lot. We would continue doing everything exactly the same. We did not commit any crimes" (
ESPN, 2/4).
TEBAS BACKS BARTOMEU: In Madrid, Juan Jiménez reported Spanish Football League (LFP) President Javier Tebas spoke about the charging of Bartomeu and "wanted to make it clear that he was strictly speaking in legal terms to avoid any political insinuations." Tebas: "I have read the judge's written arguments and, in relation to the
imputation of Bartomeu, there are legal flaws. The judge's written
arguments refer to the income tax of 2014 and this can be paid up until
31 January 2015. It is not normal that he has been accused in four days. It is a highly debatable tax issue and I think that Bartomeu might be right. And I am speaking of this case, not [former Barcelona President Sandro] Rosell's. I speak as a jurist and I think that Barcelona might be right, but in the penal world sometimes new evidence emerges and therefore you never know" (AS, 2/4).
