The world’s largest sportswear manufacturer announced on Friday that it had said goodbye to Brazil’s star footballer Neymar last year because it refused to cooperate in the investigation of a sexual incident he was to commit against a company employee.
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The alleged incident was supposed to take place in 2016, an unnamed employee did not report it until two years later, he writes BBC. The investigation did not take place until 2019, because the employee did not want it before. The company said it considered the allegation to be “credible” but was not proven by an independent investigation.
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Neymar’s spokesman justified the end of the cooperation on commercial grounds. Shortly after breaking up with Nike, he signed a contract with Puma. “Neymar will vigorously defend against these unsubstantiated attacks in the event of any claim being made, which has not yet happened,” she told The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which was the first to report on the report. According to Neymar, it is also strange that the case came to light only now, when it was supposed to take place in 2016.
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The footballer had a 15-year contract with Nike. The cooperation was terminated last August, when the company did not comment on the reason.
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“No specific facts that would allow us to talk about this matter in fact have emerged. It would be inappropriate for Nike to come up with the accusation without being able to prove it, “the company said in a statement on Thursday. However, she added that “Nike terminated its cooperation with the athlete because it refused to cooperate in the investigation, which was conducted in good faith on the basis of credible allegations made by the company’s employees.”
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Last year’s striker Paris St. Germain was accused of rape at a Parisian hotel by a Brazilian model. The investigation was stopped for lack of evidence.
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