US sports brand Nike has revealed that they ended its partnership with Neymar last year after he ‘refused to cooperate’ in an internal sexual assault involving the Brazilian and an employee.
The sponsorship deal – worth £78.6m was due to run until 2022, ended last year with Nike refusing to disclose the reason at the time for dropping the PSG star.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Nike employee alleged that in 2016 Neymar attempted to force her to perform oral sex in his hotel room while in New York City for a promotional event.
Neymar, through his spokesman in a statement, denied such allegations and labeled it as ‘baseless attacks’ which ‘never happened’.
A statement from Nike read: “Nike was deeply disturbed by sexual assault allegations made by one of our own employees against Neymar Jr.
“The alleged incident occurred in 2016 and was officially reported to Nike in 2018. The employee came forward to share her experience in a forum created by Nike leadership to afford a safe environment in which current and former employees could confidentially share their experiences and concerns.
“From the very beginning, we have treated the employee’s allegations and her experience with great seriousness.
“When the employee first relayed her allegations to Nike’s leadership in 2018, she did so only with assurances of confidentiality.
“While Nike was prepared and ready to investigate at that time, Nike respected the employee’s initial desire to keep this matter confidential and avoid an investigation.
“As her employer, we had a responsibility to respect her privacy and did not believe it was appropriate to share that information with law enforcement or any third party without the employee’s consent.
“In 2019, when the employee later expressed interest in pursuing the matter, we acted immediately. Nike commissioned an independent investigation and retained separate independent legal counsel for the employee, of her choosing and at the company’s expense.
“The investigation was inconclusive. No single set of facts emerged that would enable us to speak substantively on the matter.
“It would be inappropriate for Nike to make an accusatory statement without being able to provide supporting facts.
“Nike ended its relationship with the athlete because he refused to cooperate in a good faith investigation of credible allegations of wrongdoing by an employee.”
After his contract with Nike was terminated last September, the former Barcelona forward moved on thence to secure a money-spinning deal to become the new face of Puma.
