A judicial investigation has been opened into possible problems with the 40 million euro transfer of David Villa from Valencia to Barcelona in 2010.
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caption:David Villa left Valencia for Barcelona in 2010.
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The inquiry, which is looking at similar issues as the currently ongoing case investigating Neymar’s arrival at Barcelona from Santos last summer, is mostly focused on the Valencia end of the transfer.
Valencia figures such as former club president Manuel Llorente, and former club vice-president Javier Gomez [current director general of La Liga] are named in the court documents according to El Pais, who spoke with Andres Sanchi, the lawyer and club shareholder who has made the official complaint.
“The transfer contains some very strange things,” Sanchi said.
Former Barca president Joan Laporta has reportedly signed a document for the court saying the full price was 40 million euros, not 50 million euros, which would have left an extra 10 million euros unaccounted for.
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The El Pais report says Villa changed his agent just before the transfer went through, with former Valencia staff member Victor Onate owning the new company which represented him. The current Atletico Madrid player’s former agent Jose Luis Tamargo [of 12 years up until 2009] said that he had been shocked at being cut out of the deal at the time.
“We later went to court and the judge said that, as I was not present when he signed with Barca, I had no right to anything,” Tamargo said. "I never understood what they did to me.”
The enquiry is also linked to Valencia’s controversial share issue of 2009, a move which was supposed to shore up the club’s finances, but which has actually brought about the situation where bailed-out lender Bankia now controls the foundation which on paper controls the club.
Valencia’s sale is currently being handled by an unwieldy alliance of the club, its foundation, Bankia and consultants KPMG. Bids backed by China’s second richest man Wang Jianlin, US venture capitalists TPG, Qatari investment fund QIA, Russian businessman Mijail Boskov and Austrian multinational Red Bull are reportedly all being considered at present, although Singapore business Peter Lim has reportedly faded from the picture.
The Madrid court investigation into the 86.2 million euro deal which brought Neymar to the Camp Nou in summer 2013 is ongoing, with Barca already having made a 13.6 million euros extra payment to the Spanish taxman, and possible charges still to be brought against individuals involved in the deal, including Laporta’s successor as Barcelona president Sandro Rosell, and the current holder of the position Josep Maria Bartomeu.