Neymar has paid the €222million (£198m) fee to release him from his contract with Barcelona.

A sports lawyer working for the player, Juan de Dio Crespo, deposited the money with the Spanish League on Thursday morning but reports say the payment has not been accepted after Wednesday’s threats from League president Javier Tebas that they would reject the buy-out money.

Neymar – who has delayed his arrival in France until Friday – is now in a race against time to register with the French league so he can make his debut on Saturday against Amiens.

He needs to register a provisional transfer by Friday to make it in time to kick-off PSG’s first match of the season.

A quirk of the Spanish transfer system means that the fee had to be deposited by the player to release from his contract. In Spain, every player has a buyout clause written into their contracts, with a purchasing club paying the fee to the player and the player then transferring it to La Liga.

PSG had fought against paying the money as a buy-out clause to the league because it means releasing all the funds immediately and incurring additional tax.

But Barcelona were not prepared to allow the French club to treat the transfer as an orthodox deal.

They are also likely to put pressure on UEFA to fully investigate how PSG have funded the payment of the clause — which they once thought beyond the reach of every club in the world.

Culled from Mail Sport