Brazilian superstar Neymar was included in Barcelona’s squad to face Valencia in their Copa del Rey semi-final, first-leg on Wednesday just a day after testifying in court on fraud and corruption allegations.
Neymar and his father gave evidence to Spain’s National Court on Tuesday regarding their role in the complicated web of contracts that brought the player to Barcelona from Santos in 2013.
However, the pair were also hit with a further legal setback later in the day when Brazilian prosecutors filed a tax fraud and forgery case against them.
Investigators in both countries suspect Neymar’s family and Barcelona hid the real value of the deal.
Barcelona valued the transfer at about 57 million euros ($62 million), but Spanish authorities think it added up to more than 83 million euros.
No effect on performances
Despite his problems off the pitch, Neymar’s performances for Barcelona have been consistently brilliant — scoring 21 goals this season as part of his fearsome strike partnership with Ballon d’Or recipient Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
“From zero to one million, it affects him at 0.000001 per cent,” Barca boss Luis Enrique said of Neymar’s judicial problems on Tuesday.
“It has nothing to do with football, this is an issue that will be resolved as it should be.”
Barcelona will be without Javier Mascherano, Dani Alves and Claudio Bravo for Wednesday's Copa del Rey semi-final first leg with Valencia.Enrique has opted to leave the South American trio out of the squad for the meeting with Gary Neville's side at Camp Nou.
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