Barcelona made a document available to its members on Tuesday "in relation to the pact agreed with the tax authorities regarding the signing of Neymar" in '13, according to Ivan San Antonio of SPORT. In the document, first revealed by Manifest Blaugrana on its Twitter profile, "the club admit responsibility for committing tax fraud." The information "contradicts" what club President Josep Maria Bartomeu said on June 13, when he "used euphemisms" such as "there have been errors in tax planning" when, "in reality, the club have accepted that two crimes were committed against the tax authorities." In the text which accompanies the judicial agreement made by the club, the commission of a crime is "clearly established in reference to the contracts signed with the companies created by Neymar’s father." The document said, "The ultimate aim of the use of such companies was to pretend that payments were due for commercial transactions with them and, additionally, fragmenting the real cost of the player to keep it hidden" (SPORT, 7/12).
NO APPEAL: In Madrid, Moisés Llorens reported Lionel Messi "is running out of bullets." He "still had two left after being convicted of tax fraud and sentenced to 21 months in jail," but he has "just lost one." During the recent trial which found him guilty of defrauding the tax authorities of €4.1M ($4.55M), state prosecutors "only brought a case against Messi's father, having accepted the player's argument that he had only played football and knew nothing about his affairs" -- an argument the judges in the case threw out. Messi had hoped that "subsequent to the trial the prosecutor would support him by appealing his conviction to the supreme court." However the prosecution service "has announced it will not be appealing" the 21-month sentence (AS, 7/13).
