This remains the biggest transfer in football history. In the summer of 2017, Neymar left FC Barcelona and joined PSG for the record sum of 222 million euros. But seven years later, French justice is wondering. Would the Paris club have obtained favors to avoid paying tens of millions of additional euros to the tax authorities? Searches were carried out on Monday at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, reveals Mediapart.
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According to journalists from Mediapart, which revealed the information at the beginning of the month, searches were carried out at the beginning of the week at the Ministry of the Economy and Finance. The searches carried out by police officers and investigating judges on Monday in offices of the General Directorate of Public Finances. So, investigators are actually trying to find out whether or not PSG was able to benefit from tax advantages to sign Neymar.
The affair dates back to the summer of 2017. PSG dreams of recruiting the Brazilian superstar. The amount of the transfer is set at 222 million euros, but the capital club realizes that in addition to these 222 million euros, it could have to pay several tens of millions of additional euros to the French tax authorities.
According to Mediapart, the former communications director of PSG, Jean-Martial Ribes, then allegedly solicited political leaders to circumvent the tax administration. The exchanges revealed by the information site suggest that the Minister of the Budget at the time, Gerald Darmanin, would have given his agreement. Which would therefore have facilitated the signing of Neymar at PSG.
This week’s searches are part of a broader investigation carried out since 2022. It targets the former communications director of PSG, Jean-Martial Ribes, suspected of influence peddling in other cases. .
Read alsoRecord transfer from Neymar to PSG: justice questions possible tax advantage
After the publication of this information, the left-wing opposition intends to investigate in turn, particularly within the Finance Committee of the National Assembly. Its president, Eric Coquerel, asked Bercy for documents relating to the transfer of Neymar, in particular the tax ruling. “There is a global problem with professional sport, and more particularly with football, because it has been a long time since entities linked to professional football – precisely depending on the tax regimes of this or that European country which make it easier to come of this or that player – ask for exceptions,” he believes.
For the president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly, “this was illustrated recently by the amendment, which fortunately was declared unconstitutional, which concerned the fact of proposing that Fifa settle in France, in exchange almost a free zone in terms of social contributions and taxation. And I have the impression that the Neymar affair falls a little into this framework. »
“And then there is a second question, which is the relationship at a certain moment between taxpayers or entities which have a strong political or economic weight and then politics. That’s not specific to football. So, we have to see if there was anything abnormal that was done and that’s why I’m asking for these files. »