Just as the Antoine Griezmann, Atlético Madrid, Barcelona feud seemed to be dying out, new details about the move have fired it up again.
Griezmann joined Barcelona in a €120m deal this summer, buying out his contract at the Wanda Metropolitano to secure the move.
Not long after, Atlético made a formal complaint about the transfer, however, insisting they were owed a further €80m as Griezmann had negotiated the deal earlier in the season when his release clause was still €200m.
The affair has ended up going through the courts, and a new twist in the tale has emerged while the clubs await a decision.
According to El Mundo, Griezmann was negotiating with Barcelona back in March around €14m worth of commissions from a potential move to the Nou Camp.
The newspaper reveals the Frenchman ‘exchanged a series of emails’ with the club, which they have seen, and these involved discussions about the move and payments to his advisors, who were mostly family members, and a key mediator.
Sevan Karian, Griezmann’s lawyer, sent the player, his father Allan and his sister Maud a written proposal that outlined who was receiving what as part of his move to Barça, which, based on the wording of the emails, was a done deal at this point.
It’s claimed Griezmann agreed to the transfer to Barcelona, despite them not having contacted Atlético about a move, but kept this from Diego Simeone’s club.
The emails discussed four commissions as part of the move and where they would be going. The first was to his sister Maude, who is his new agent, with the second going to the lawyer Karian and the third to ‘a French commission agent’.
The fourth one, some €7m, was heading to ‘a Barcelona lawyer’ who Griezmann had a close personal relationship with after having worked with him when trying to move to Barça the year before. This person is the aforementioned ‘key mediator’.
The documents became public as Griezmann’s family elected to cut out the French commission agent from the deal, who then leaked the emails as revenge, which ended up in Atlético’s hands. Interestingly, though, the Madrid club elected not to include them as part of the documents issued in their complaint against Barcelona.
El Mundo say a decision on the case is expected in the next two weeks with judge Carmen Pérez set to decide how Barcelona will be punished, or if they will face any punishment at all.
