Neymar has made it clear that he wants to leave FC Barcelona and PSG have made it clear that they are willing to pay his huge release clause.

In Spain, the player himself has to pay the clause but when Neymar’s representatives turned up with the papers to conclude a deal La Liga rejected it. They state that they don’t believe PSG are working within UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules. No matter what they think Neymar will be in Paris for this up and coming season and if you want to see him at PSG then check-out Football Ticketpad as they’ll offer you a secure service in getting tickets.

That’s actually none of La Liga’s business. If the deal goes ahead and rules are broken, then it’s up to UEFA to assess it all and punish the Ligue 1 side if necessary.

Would La Liga care if a team in Italy, Germany or Portugal were at risk of breaking FFP rules by buying a player from the likes of Valencia, Sevilla or Athletic Bilbao? Not a chance.

The only reason they are currently refusing to sanction the Neymar sale isn’t because of FFP, it’s all about not wanting to lose a top star as it reflects badly on the league. The Brazilian superstar is a worldwide commodity and a world class footballer, hence why Barca don’t want to sell and why PSG want him.

Where were the La Liga officials when Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid and Barca were handed transfer bans for breaking FIFA rules?

The fact is that they want to see their sides, especially Real and Barca, as the best in the world.

LFP president Javier Tebas has accused PSG of “financial doping“. But Spain’s big two have always been clever with their cash revenues.

Up until the latest La Liga TV deal, clubs were able to negotiate for their own games. Thus meaning Barca and Real received far higher payments than the rest. That’s not fair and doesn’t really sound like sporting integrity to me.

Real Madrid and Barcelona both enjoyed millions in government aid and La Liga did hee-haw about it. It was only when the EU got involved that things actually changed.

So I really can’t take La Liga’s stance on this matter seriously. They better watch that the EU don’t get involved again because Neymar could complain that they are not honouring his deal and are infringing his human rights to free trade. The Spanish authorities know that unlike UEFA, the EU will bring strong consequences that can change the game’s landscape (just look at the Bosman ruling).

Moving on to cry babies Barca.

If you want to see Barca at their best regarding working in transfer’s dark arts, then just look at their deal to bring Neymar to the Camp Nou in the first place.

Initially the Catalan giants lied about the fee involved. The deal eventually cost Sandro Rosell his job as the club’s president, it was announced that they had paid the player’s family around €40m and Barca were then charged with tax fraud.

You then look at how they go about their transfer business. They seem to bump into a lot of representatives of players they’ve been linked with, moves in the transfer market seem to get leaked to papers in advance and their experienced first team stars are very keen to talk about potential transfer targets in press conferences.

I’m not saying that they are tapping players up, just that they walk a fine line (which is constantly blurred).

Barca use their name and stature within the game to lure players to Spain and to bully teams into selling top talents. It’s a tactic that works and fair play to them but don’t cry foul when someone uses similar tactics to get one of your stars.

They will use the Neymar cash to go out and relieve another top European side of one of their best footballers.

I feel sorry for the Barca fans as they are losing a hero but I don’t feel sorry for the club nor La Liga. They helped create this current culture within our game and have to live with the consequences.

Posted on August 3rd, 2017 by scott
Filed under: Article