Now Neymar under racism scanner
Marseille claim to have footage of Neymar racially abusing Japanese right-back Hiroki Sakai during their Ligue 1 win over Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month, a source close to the club said on Tuesday.
The individual said they have evidence of the Brazil forward making the comments on two occasions. A Marseille spokesperson refused to confirm the allegations. "We have no comment. We entrust all our expertise and analysis to the examiners" of the league, they said.
Neymar alleged he was the victim of racist abuse by Marseille defender Alvaro Gonzalez in the fixture where five players including Neymar himself were shown red cards. Last week Brazil's Globo Esporte said PSG had submitted a video of the incident to the French league (LFP) "to attempt to prove that Neymar was the victim of racism".
Three Brazilian lip-reading experts interviewed by Globo TV on Sunday agreed Gonzalez had called Neymar "mono" -- "monkey" in Spanish -- after watching the footage.
However, other lip-reading experts have analysed the same tape and found no evidence the defender used a racial slur. According to some Spanish media reports, Neymar in fact used a homophobic slur against Gonzalez. A PSG source told AFP the allegations had "no value".
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