La Liga refuses to accept payment of Neymar's £198m release fee
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Updated 03/08/2017 at 13:08 GMT
Neymar’s lawyer, Juan de Dios Crespo, has attempted to pay the €222 million (£198m) required to release the Barcelona star from his contract - only to be rejected by the Spanish league.
Brazilian football player Neymar is pictured upon his arrival at Francisco Sa Carneiro airport on the outskirts of Porto
Image credit: Getty Images
Marca reports that Crespo headed up a delegation who attempted to pay the fee stipulated in Neymar's contract with Barcelona.
However, the LFP has refused the payment - confirmed by La Liga CEO Javier Gomez - as it is questioning PSG's Financial Fair Play credentials.
A statement from La Liga said: "Lawyers of the player have come to La Liga to deposit the clause and it has been rejected."
Neymar will now ask FIFA to provisionally confirm the transfer in order that he can make his debut at the weekend in the Ligue 1 opener against Amiens.
"We will not accept this money from a club like PSG," Liga president Javier Tebas told AS on Wednesday. "Especially when this club is infringing rules and laws."
Despite the resistance from La Liga, Neymar's lawyer has still taken a decisive step in the process of transferring the 25-year-old to Paris.
The €222m release clause was included in the contract Neymar signed less than a year ago, which apparently committed him to the club until 2021.
Financial Fair Play falls under UEFA's remit and Marca reports that there are no grounds for La Liga to refuse the deposit, meaning FIFA is likely to give the transfer approval.
Wenger: Once a country controls a club, anything is possible
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger gave his opinion on Neymar's prospective move at a press conference on Thursday.
It is because of the ownerships. The whole landscape of football has changed completely. Once a country controls a club, everything is possible. It becomes impossible to respect financial fair play. That’s why I always did plead for football to live on its own resources. We are not in a period anymore where you invest it and expect to get it back. The numbers involve a lot of passion and pride. The numbers looks just like the inflation is accelerating. When you think Trevor Francis was the first player for £1million and it looked unreasonable, we have moved so far, beyond reality.
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