- Pique claims that Barca players wanted the club to modify their contracts.
- They did not ask for a lower salary, but for their pay to be spread out over two or three years.
- The players requested this so the club could sign Neymar without breaking the law.
Talking to Cadena Ser (h/t AS), Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has revealed that the Blaugrana players asked the club to alter their contracts to fit into Financial Fair Play regulations in order to sign Neymar.
“We didn’t stump up money. What we said to the president was whether we could change our contracts because we knew there was a Financial Fair Play issue…So we said to the president, rather than earn something in year one, we could earn it in year two or three or four.
“At the end of the day we want to go along with what the club is doing and if we can help the club, in this case avoiding a financial fair problem, we’ve got no problem in doing that. Rather than reducing our salary, it was about finding a formula so that if the club wanted to sign Ney they could. At the time they thought it was a good idea, but then other problems cropped up.”
Neymar was a subject of the most dramatic transfer saga this summer. The Brazil international has publicly stated his desire to move away from Parc des Princes but ended up staying with Les Parisiens despite Barcelona’s and Real Madrid’s attempts to sign him.
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