Search icon

Sport

03rd Aug 2017

Here’s why La Liga rejected PSG’s €222m payment of Neymar’s buy-out clause

This wasn't part of Neymar's plan

Paul Moore

They’ve released a statement.

La Liga have rejected PSG’s payment of Neymar’s record-breaking release clause of €222m. With news that the Brazilian was set to move to Paris, the French side’s bid has been stalled by the Spanish authorities.

PSG’s lawyers arrived at the La Liga headquarters to lodge a cheque to trigger the buy-out clause but La Liga officials refused any attempt to hand over the money to buy out the Brazilian’s contract at Barcelona.

“We can confirm that the player’s lawyers came to the La Liga offices this morning to deposit the clause and that it has been rejected. That’s all the information we are giving out at this moment,” a statement from the league said.

Javier Tebas, President of La Liga, has previously stated that the deal would infringe upon financial fair play and has insisted his stance on protecting Spain’s clubs.

It has been noted in The Guardian, that under current La Liga regulations, a player must buy himself out of his contract. Marca said La Liga has no legal grounds to reject the payment and PSG and Neymar would be within their rights to ask FIFA to intervene. In this case, Spanish clubs would not be able to reject the money if Neymar himself showed up to pay it.

Previously, Tebas has said that the crux of his complaint revolves around the issue of Financial Fair Play.

“Basically, the complaint will be over unfair competition and against teams that receive financial injections from owners that ‘gift’ players to their fans by taking them away from others. PSG are a clear example of ‘financial doping’ by club/state.”