Neymar has attempted to pay the €222million (£198m) fee to release him from his contract with Barcelona- but La Liga have sensationally rejected the payment.
A sports lawyer working for the player, Juan de Dio Crespo, deposited a cheque with the Spanish League on Thursday morning but the payment has not been accepted off the back of threats made on Wednesday by La Liga president Javier Tebas that they would reject the money.
A La Liga statement read: 'We can confirm that the lawyers of the player have come to La Liga to deposit the clause and that it has been rejected. It is all the information we will give so far.’Â
Neymar - who has delayed his arrival in Paris until Friday - is now in a race against time to register with the French league so he can make his debut on Saturday against Amiens. He needs to register a provisional transfer by Friday to make it in time to kick-off PSG's first match of the season.
Neymar flew to Porto on Wednesday where he had a medical in the presence of PSG's Portuguese sporting director Antero Henrique.
On the same day,in an interview in AS,Tebas claimed he would not accept the clause because of the doubts over PSG's financing.
He said: 'In terms of PSG, it is a clear case of financial doping, with the club and the state. PSG's accounts show that they have a larger commercial income than Real Madrid and Manchester United, which is to say that the value of their brand is greater than those clubs. Well, that is impossible.'
He added: 'We will not accept that money from a club like PSG that, without belonging to La Liga, want to embrace the rights of our organisation.'
The claim seemed more like the desperate cry of a man whose league is about to lose one of its emblematic players than the claim of someone standing on solid legal ground - but Tebas has matched his words with action.Â
A quirk of the Spanish transfer system means that the fee has to be deposited by the player to release him from his contract. In Spain, every player has a buyout clause written into their contracts, with a purchasing club paying the fee to the player and the player then transferring it to La Liga.
PSG had fought against paying the money as a buyout clause to the league because it means releasing all the funds immediately and incurring additional tax.
ut Barcelona were not prepared to allow the French club to treat the transfer as an orthodox deal. They are also likely to put pressure on UEFA to fully investigate how PSG have funded the payment of the clause — which they once thought beyond the reach of every club in the world.Â
Meanwhile, Barcelona confirmed they have not paid Neymar's father commission for a five-year contract renewal signed in October last year, despite a payment of €25m (£22m) being due on July 31.
The club have deposited the money with a lawyer in the city and will take legal advice after Neymar's transfer has been concluded to see if they can pay only a percentage of the fee — in keeping with the proportion of the deal which Neymar served.Â
Neymar Snr is due to earn around £36m from the transfer. Â
Credit: Daily Mail