BRAZILIAN prosecutors have launched an investigation into a star-studded New Year’s Eve party PSG striker Neymar has allegedly organised.
The probe was announced late last night following conflicting reports about the number of revellers due to attend the bash.
The footballer has vehemently denied that he was organising any celebrations.
At the weekend Brazilian newspapers claimed the 28-year-old had organised a five-day party for 500 people despite the coronavirus pandemic at a rented mansion near his luxury home in the paradise resort of Mangaratiba near Rio de Janeiro.
Party organisers Agencia Fabrica subsequently insisted only 150 people would attend the event and it would comply with strict health rules to try to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
Overnight Neymar’s lawyers insisted the footballer had nothing to do with the party and said he would be spending New Year’s Eve with his family and physiotherapist in southern Brazil.
He is continuing to recover from an ankle injury sustained earlier this month.
The PSG star has said nothing publicly but posted a photo yesterday showing him relaxing on a boat with a friend.
It appeared to have been taken on a beach in the southern state of Santa Catarina, more than 600 miles south of Mangaratiba.
Rio state prosecutors have asked both the footballer and the two residential estates linked to the party – Portobello in Mangaritiba where Neymar’s £6m mansion is and nearby Aero Rural Bom Jardim – for ‘urgent clarification’.
They said they were seeking information on the number of guests and the organisation of the event as well as the health measures being adopted.
They added: “Other measures are being taken and will be adopted at the appropriate time and we will act in accordance with the current rules where irregularities and breaches of the health regulations are identified in the events publicised by the media.”
The statement added the inquiry was the result of ‘several complaints, based on information published in the press about events allegedly sponsored by the footballer Neymar’.
Local governors in Mangaratiba have also been officially notified of the prosecution inquiry, although it appeared unlikely today they can do anything to stop the event after officials said they had no legal power to legislate over events in privately-owned homes.
A spokesman for the gated estate called Portobello where Neymar owns a mansion told local press the prosecution request for information had already been answered.
The confusion surrounding the New Year’s Eve bash came as local media reported frenzied activity at an airstrip in the Aero Rural Bom Jardin estate near to Portobello.
Several Brazilian newspapers said revellers were reaching Mangaratiba in small planes and helicopters and avoiding police checkpoints set up to filter out party guests heading to the area by road.
An empty hangar is said to have been decked out to host the main party, following initial unconfirmed reports earlier this week that the New Year’s Eve disco would take place in an acoustically-protected annexe of a rented mansion in Mangaratiba.
One even suggested to it being held in an underground disco Neymar had built especially for star-studded bashes.
Brazil has been one of the world’s hardest-hit countries during the coronavirus pandemic, with more than 190,000 deaths.
Its death toll puts it behind only the United States.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases currently stands at 7.5m, more than any other country apart from the States and India.
Human rights lawyer Augusto de Arruda Botelho, one of the many people to criticise Neymar at the start of the week after reports of the party first started surfacing, tweeted at the time: “The idiot trophy for the day goes to Neymar for his five-day party.”
The PSG star was feared to have broken his ankle after being stretchered-off from a Ligue 1 match earlier this month.
But subsequent medical examinations were said to have been ‘reassuring’ although the 28-year-old was ruled out for the rest of 2020.
Neymar’s lavish parties have made headlines in the past.
Former Manchester United player Ander Herrera told earlier this year how the Brazilian split team-mates into two groups on different floors of a Paris nightclub for his 28th birthday bash in February.
Married players partied on the top floor while those who were single were set up on the bottom floor so they could ‘have a good time’.
Asked what happened at the party on Spanish TV show The Resistance, Herrera responded: “What didn’t happen!”
Neymar turned up for the bash at YOYO close to the Eiffel Tower looking dapper in a white hat.
Mangaratiba is one of three municipalities on the Green Coast, a chain of mountains covered by the rich Atlantic rainforest.
In front of the mountains lies the sea of the Angra dos Reis Bay.
