FOOTBALL
Barcelona pay Atlético €15m as peace offering over Griezmann
Reported by El Mundo and confirmed by AS, Barcelona will pay Atlético Madrid €15 million to put an end to the Griezmann transfer fee saga.
Barcelona and Atlético Madrid have reached an agreement to put a full stop at the end of their row over Antoine Griezmann according to El Mundo and corroborated by AS. Barcelona will pay €15 million to Atlético to not publish e-mails that show their negotiation with Griezmann before his release clause dropped to €120 million (the fee Barcelona paid for the player).
Along with the €15 million, Barcelona are getting the right to first refusal on five Atlético Madrid players. Barcelona, according to sources within the club, recognise the payment for this option but reject the idea that the fee is being paid to avoid the e-mails being published. Atlético Madrid say the story isn't true in relation to e-mails and Griezmann. One other aspect of any potential fee is that Real Sociedad are owed 20% of Griezmann's transfer - that would amount to an extra €3 million on top of the €24 they have already received.
According to the club, there is an agreement with Barcelona, but they say it has nothing to do with the Griezmann situation. Atlético say they will recieve an economic compensation for giving Barcelona the first option on a number of Atlético players - mainly from the academy - although they would not confirm that Saúl and Giménez are included.
In the e-mails Atlético have, there are discussions between Griezmann, his sister and representative, his lawyers and advisors and his father that date as far back as March. In those e-mails, there is proof that discussions between Barcelona and Griezmann were very advanced with a fee of €14 million to be paid in commission. After Atlético Madrid reported Barcelona to the Spanish football federation, the competition committee fined Barça €300 and threatened them with closing the Camp Nou for a game.