A few days ago it seemed that Neymar's move from Barcelona to PSG was all but settled. The player had told the club that he wanted to leave and PSG were willing to pay the required money. While this was not music to Barcelona fans, even they had accepted that the 25-year-old attacker was going to leave the club. Just as it seemed this saga was about to come to an end, another twist has appeared, La Liga has rejected the money for this transfer.
What has exactly happened?
For a player to be released by a football club in Spain, he must buy himself out of his contract.
This is done by making the payment to La Liga, the governing body of Spain's top league of football, who then send the money to the club whose player is leaving. The money that was deposited by Neymar, his lawyers and Paris Saint-Germain to release the Brazilian international from his Barcelona contract has been rejected by La Liga. This payment is equal to Neymar's buy out clause which is said to be 222 million euros ($263 million US dollars). It has been said on media in Spain that La Liga believe that PSG are violating UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules in order to make this world record transfer.
What is UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP)?
Financial Fair Play was introduced by UEFA during the 2011-2012 season and it has had a massive impact on the transfer policy of many clubs in Europe.
On a basic level, the FFP rules imply that a European club is not allowed to spend more than 30 million euros of what they earn. This rule has gotten some big clubs such as Athletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid into trouble with many of these clubs ending up with transfer bans. This concept of Financial Fair Play was introduced into European football in order to improve the financial health of football clubs in Europe.
FFP had the idea of preventing football clubs from overspending and ending up bankrupt.
What next is the Neymar transfer saga?
Without La Liga approving the money from Neymar and Paris Saint-Germain, the Brazilian is unable to make his much-anticipated move to the French capital. Considering that Financial Fair Play is the reason for this issue, it is assumed that it will be the role of UEFA officials to look into this case more carefully. If UEFA give the green light on this transfer, then La Liga will have no choice but to accept the money for Paris Saint-Germain. Until this happens, it will be tense times at both PSG and Barcelona.
