‘Neymar deal sets precedent’

Guillem Balague says the decision for Neymar to play for Brazil in the Olympics rather than Copa America sets a bad precedent in the club versus country row.

Barcelona announced on Wednesday night that the Brazilian captain will play at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics for his country but will skip the Copa America, despite previously stating he wanted to play in both.

The Brazilian FA had asked for his release, but Barcelona did not want to lose the striker for so long and feared that his participation in both events could affect his preparations for next season.

The confederation and the club had been in talks for several months before finally reaching a deal, and Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Balague believes the decision does more bad than good.

“It seems to be more of a bad precedent than a good precedent, because there is a compromise between the confederation and the club,” Balague said.

“The reaction in Barcelona is that most people believed Neymar was not going to rest enough. We’ve seen Neymar take some trips to Brazil, not just to do with football, and there’s a lot of negative publicity in the direction of Neymar, so this is a good …

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