In a long-running legal saga surrounding Brazilian soccer star Neymar’s 2013 high-profile transfer to FC Barcelona, Spain’s Supreme Court has issued a final ruling upholding the acquittal of all defendants, including the player himself and two of the Catalan club’s former presidents. The case originated back in 2015, when Brazilian sports investment group DIS launched legal action over the deal, arguing that it had suffered substantial financial harm due to its 40% stake in Neymar’s sporting rights during his early career at Brazil’s Santos FC.
DIS claimed that key details of the transfer were deliberately hidden from the firm, most notably a 2011 exclusivity agreement between Neymar and Barcelona that was never disclosed to the rights holders. The high-profile first trial wrapped up in 2022, when a lower Spanish court cleared every named defendant of corruption and fraud charges. Alongside Neymar, former Barca presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, Neymar’s parents, Santos FC, the club’s ex-president Odilio Rodrigues Filho, and N&N — the career management company owned by the Neymar family — all received not guilty rulings.
Unsatisfied with the 2022 outcome, DIS launched an appeal seeking to overturn the acquittal and recover 35 million euros in damages the firm claimed it was wrongfully denied. The Supreme Court’s Wednesday ruling rejected the appeal, concluding that the evidence presented in the case failed to back up the accuser’s claims. “The proven facts have revealed the inconsistency of the accusation,” the court explained in an official statement. “There was neither an offence of corruption in business dealings nor improper fraud, neither by the player, his representatives nor FC Barcelona.”
The court further noted that the transfer timeline and structure stemmed simply from a strategic sporting decision by Barcelona, which moved to accelerate Neymar’s signing amid intense interest from multiple top rival clubs across Europe. At the time of the transfer, Barcelona publicly stated the total cost of the deal stood at 57.1 million euros, with 40 million euros paid to N&N and 17.1 million euros transferred to Santos. Of the sum paid to the Brazilian club, only 6.8 million euros was passed on to DIS, which formed the basis of its financial claim.
Notably, prosecutors initially pursued harsh penalties for Neymar, calling for a two-year prison sentence and a 10 million euro fine against the attacker. In an unexpected shift late in the process, however, prosecutors chose to drop all corruption and fraud charges against every defendant in the case. This is not the only legal controversy tied to the 2013 transfer: Neymar also faced separate tax fraud allegations linked to the deal, which were resolved back in 2016 when Barcelona agreed to pay a 5.5 million euro fine to close the case with prosecutors. Now, 11 years after the transfer and nearly a decade after legal action first began, the final ruling from Spain’s highest court brings this high-stakes soccer legal battle to a close.