Barcelona have found themselves in yet more legal hot waterthis week after it emerged that they paid £8.5m for Neymar a whole two-years before the transfer was completed in 2013.
FIFA regulations state that transfer negotiations can only take place when a player's contract has six or less months remaining, meaning that the Catalans could receive punishment for their part played in the deal.
Tapes obtained byGloboesportereveal former Barca owner Sandro Rosell informing the judge of the pre-payments.
Rosell told the Court back in 2014:"We had other clubs and other figures.
"When we went back and offered 40 million euros [to be paid when the player joined Barcelona], Neymar's dad said: 'Is this the advance?'
"So I said to him: 'Very well, how much do you want in advance?'
"[Neymar's dad said] 'I want 10 [million euros].'
Barcelona have been keeping a secret nobody knew about Neymar - until now https://t.co/Ym1Fdpwko4 pic.twitter.com/1mXHlW82LH
""So we will give you 10 in advance."
"It was lucky that he asked for the advance because otherwise I would have offered it.
"I would have said: "Look, you don't want anything in advance?""
Rosell's successor,Josep Maria Bartomeu, further explainedthe situation in 2015: "We had three players from this country [Brazil] very interested in joining us.
"Of the three, two went to other clubs in Europe and there was just Neymar left.
"So we started a conversation with Neymar's father to ensure that when his Santos contract finished he would come and play at Barcelona.
"It was a contract to kind of tie the player.
"It's a contract as it was... not an advance payment, but almost an advance payment to ensure that he didn't go to another club."
Barcelona argue that the pre-payment was a part of a civil contract, and not one that would go through sporting or FIFA regulations.