International

Neymar has been found guilty of tax evasion by a Brazilian court, which ordered the Barcelona and Brazil star to pay 188.8 Brazilian reais (£36m) in back taxes, interest and fines.

The judge at a federal court in Rio de Janeiro ruled that the 24-year-old had failed to pay the tax due in Brazil on earnings from his contracts with former club Santos, Barcelona and Nike during the 2011-2013 period.

Neymar’s extremely lucrative 2013 move from Brazilian club Santos to FC Barcelona is also being investigated by a court in Spain owing to allegations that directors at the two clubs and the player connived to conceal the full cost of the transfer.
    
    

According to the ruling, revealed on Friday by Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the Barça star used three companies he had set up along with his father, Neymar da Silva, to conceal £11 million in taxes.

Apart from the taxes not paid by Neymar Sport & Marketing, N&N Consultoria, and N&N Administração de Bens, the judge added a further £25 million in interest and fines to the amount the player must cough up.

Neymar had denied the charges and he can still appeal the decision to a higher court.
    
    

The player, who scored in Barcelona’s Champions League victory over Arsenal this week, did not make a statement when the news broke on Friday.

Last month a court in Brazil moved to freeze £32 million worth of assets belonging to Neymar, including the forward’s private jet, a yacht and several properties in Brazil.

The ruling will not halt a separate fraud probe being investigated in Spain, based on a complaint by a Brazilian investment fund called DIS, which had acquired 40 per cent of Neymar’s sporting rights before he left Santos.

DIS has claimed that it was cheated of its rightful share of the transfer deal, said by Barcelona to be worth €57.1 million (£44m), but which Spanish prosecutors believe was actually more than €83 million. The remainder is said to have ended up in the N&N network of family companies.
    
    

Earlier this year, both Neymar and his father were called in by a Spanish high court judge to give testimony, as was the president of FC Barcelona, Josep Maria Bartomeu and his predecessor, Sandro Rosell, who was in charge of the club at the time the deal with Santos and the player was signed.

Judge José de la Mata is reportedly pursuing a theory that the Barcelona executives and the Neymars put together a secret deal to buy the player in 2011, with Mr Rosell and Mr Bartomeu allegedly agreeing to pay €40 million to N&N in order to claim the right to signNeymar when his contract ended with Santos.

Apart from the alleged breach of Neymar’s contract with the DIS fund, Judge de la Mata is investigating whether the alleged deal breached the principle of an open transfer market as it is reported that Neymar had to agree to reject all offers from any other clubs. Before Barcelona finally added Neymar to its stellar squad, there were persistent rumours that Real Madrid was interested in signing the forward.