The Public Prosecution Service (OM) in Spain will investigate the transfers of Jasper Cillessen and Neto in 2019. The the Dutch international moved from Barcelona to Valencia, while Neto took the opposite route. It now appears that both clubs cheated with the amount of the transfer fee to cover up their losses. Barça paid 35 million euros for Cillessen, while his Spanish colleague cost 26 million.
Barcelona and Valencia could have settled the exchange deal on paper with nine million euros, since that is the difference between the two transfer fees. By jacking up the sum, however, it seemed that both clubs were in better shape financially than they actually were. With his 35 million euros, Cillessen entered the books as one of the most expensive goalkeepers ever. Only Ederson (40 million), Gianluigi Buffon (52.9 million), Alisson Becker (62.5 million) and Kepa Arrizabalaga (80 million) were ever paid more.
The case of Cillessen and Neto started rolling through Miguel Zorío. The former vice-president of Valencia included the accusation in a complaint to the club, after which the OM has now decided to open a preliminary investigation. In his indictment, Zorío mainly focuses on owner Peter Lim, but also on president Layhoon Chan, former president Amadeo Salvo and agent Jorge Mendes.
In his writing, Zorío pointed to possible corporate malpractices, false accounting, unfair governance, corruption between individuals and against the treasury. The letter from the Public Prosecution Service states that there have been previous investigation procedures in this case, but that no criminal trial has yet taken place. The public prosecutor’s office confirms that previous investigations are included in its own investigation in order to ‘clarify matters and prevent duplication of work’.