MADRID: Spanish champions and league leaders Barcelona have complied with a court order to hand up the contracts of Brazilian superstar Neymar.

Judge Pablo Ruz has asked for sight of the paperwork so as to assess the vadlidity of a complaint filed by club member Jordi Cases that the club, headed by controversial president Sandro Rosell, had been guilty of  “misappropriation” of funds.

Barcelona executive Toni Freixa delivered the documentation to National Court two contracts agreed with Neymar, for the years 2011 and 2013.

Freixa has handed over a copy of the club’s full accounts as requested for 2011, 2012 and 2013. This is because Cases has claimed that the club had undertaken secret deals which raised the value of Neymar transfer  from Santos last summer to around €100m, almost double the stated amount of €57.1m.

The original transfer was three years in the making.

It was back in 2010 that Barcelona and Real Madrid began competing in earnest. At one point Madrid president Florentino Perez believed he had reached agreement with Santos for a transfer after next year’s World Cup.

Barcelona then shifted the goalposts with a down-payment of €10m which, with other football factors, persuaded Neymar to move to Barcelona this past summer.

Catalan media reported, when the deal was finally signed and sealed, that Barcelona paid €17m for the player’s contract and €40m to the company N & N (Neymar and Neymar), owned by the father and the player who controlled negotiations.

Santos have said that they also had to pay €9m on to an agency, DIS, involved in commercial ‘ownership’ of Neymar. This and other elements in the deal have led to claims that Neymar’s signing will cost at least €100m.

Some of the difference is made up by €9m for an option on three other Santos players plus a guarantee of €13m from two friendly matches between the clubs. That leaves another €20m-plus which, Cases believes, has been guaranteed to Neymar over the length of his contract.

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