On Wednesday, we covered a story from Correio da Manhã which reported interesting details of Newcastle United’s negotiations with Sporting for the defender Ruben Semedo.
A former Sporting board member has been accusing club president Bruno de Carvalho of receiving money from overpaid transfers, and Semedo would be one of them.
Newcastle ended up giving up on the deal, and the defender moved to Villarreal for the same amount as negotiated with the Magpies, so we pointed out that maybe the English club didn’t want to get involved in this.
“Still raises suspicions about the transfer of Ruben Semedo to “amaze yourself” Newcastle …. So it is easy to unmask, since the documents are public.
“There was in fact a meeting in which agent João Pinheiro and an English agent were present. They said they could bring a proposal from Newcastle of 14 million and, following the meeting, a document was drawn up in which they reported the same confirming the availability of Sporting CP to make the sale for that amount.
“But the truth is that the proposal was no more than intentions and never came. And it’s only by ignorance or bad faith that it’s ignored that the athlete transferred for 14 million to Villarreal of Spain, without any interference of the agent João Pinheiro.”
Back in June, newspaper Diário de Notícias published a document which showed that Sporting were agreeing to sell Semedo to Newcastle for €14m. So that may be what Carvalho is referring to.
Now this public war should indeed be taking place in court soon. Newcastle were certainly not involved with any of this, but if proved that some ilegal comissions were being paid, it may show that the Magpies didn’t want their hands dirty.
