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Neymar excused from Barca training

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Barcelona star Neymar

Neymar has been granted permission to miss training by Barcelona as his world-record move to Paris Saint-Germain reportedly nears completion.

Reports in Spain on Wednesday morning claimed the Brazil forward visited Barcelona’s training ground to say farewell to his teammates ahead of a €222-million switch to the French capital.

A brief statement on Barcelona’s Twitter page confirmed that Neymar was allowed to forego a practice session, with the blessing of head coach Ernesto Valverde.

‘Neymar Jr hasn’t trained on Wednesday, with the permission of the coach,’ Barca tweeted.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi hinted that the signing could be close in an interview on Tuesday, while La Liga president Javier Tebas again questioned the legality of the transfer in a piece published by AS on Wednesday.

Tebas complained last week that any deal for PSG to bring in Neymar would be in breach of Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules, and he told AS that La Liga would not accept the transfer, with a willingness to take its fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the European Union.

‘If PSG come with the money for Neymar’s [release] clause we will not accept it,’ he said. ‘They are financial dopers, breaking FFP laws.

‘We will not accept money from a club who, without belonging to La Liga, wants to take advantage of a right of our organisation – even more when this club is breaking rules and laws.

‘If Uefa do not react, we will present an FFP complaint immediately. The complaint is ready and will be presented to Uefa, to the European Union and the Swiss courts (CAS), which are the courts that have jurisdiction.

‘Basically, what will be denounced is the unfair competition that involves competing against teams that receive economic injections from countries.

‘PSG are a clear example of financial doping. Their accounts show more commercial income than Real Madrid or Manchester United. Well, that’s impossible.

‘The truth is Uefa have not been able to control the situation, so action must be taken within the EU’s competition sphere.’

– This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za