Neymar's pals cost €300,000

Posted Wednesday, October 08, 2014 by Marca.com

Sandro Rosell's testimony to judge Ruz in the Neymar case at Spain's National High Court would suggest that Barça spent €300,000 on a private jet to fly Neymar, his family and his friends over on the day of his presentation.

According to information from TV channel Cadena SER, the payment in question was called 'Neymar party private jet: €301,000'. Rosell justified this saying that it's considered "standard expenses when you sign a particular type of player".

Judge Ruz expressed interest in why Barça pulled out of an agreement to sign Neymar in 2014 and moved it forwards to 2013 instead, changing the terms and conditions in the process. Sandro Rosell and Antoni Rossich, the club's director general, said that they moved the signing forward by a year because Tito Vilanova requested it: "When Tito was in New York ill, he could see that the team was not doing great", and that's when, according to Rosell, operations began to move the signing that Barça had originally agreed for 2014 forward by a year.

Rosell and Rossich admitted that the conditions agreed for the player's salary were changed, justifying this by saying that there were many clubs interested in Neymar. According to both men, there was an offer of €150 million from Real Madrid.

Rosell said that during the negotiations, Neymar's father wanted his son to go to Real Madrid, but that the player himself wanted to join Barça.