By Khadeeja Safdar
Nike Inc. and soccer superstar Neymar split ways last year after
the company started investigating an allegation by a Nike employee
that the Brazilian athlete had sexually assaulted her, according to
people familiar with the matter and documents reviewed by The Wall
Street Journal.
In August 2020, Nike didn't publicly give a reason for the early
end to its endorsement deal with one of the world's most
recognizable athletes. Nike's marketing contract with Neymar had
another eight years remaining, according to a person familiar with
the matter.
The Nike employee had told friends as well as Nike colleagues in
2016 that Neymar tried to force her to perform oral sex in his
hotel room while in New York City where she was helping to
coordinate events and logistics for Neymar and his entourage,
according to the people, including former and current Nike
employees, and the documents.
Neymar denies the allegation, his spokeswoman said. "Neymar Jr.
will vigorously defend himself against these baseless attacks in
case any claim is presented, which did not happen so far," she said
in a statement. She said Nike and Neymar split for commercial
reasons.
The Nike employee filed a complaint to Nike in 2018 and
described the incident to the company's head of human resources and
general counsel, according to the people and documents. Nike hired
lawyers at Cooley LLP to conduct an investigation starting in 2019
and decided to stop featuring Neymar in marketing amid the probe,
according to the people and documents.
Nike ended its relationship with Neymar in 2020 after the
athlete wouldn't cooperate with the Cooley investigation, some of
the people said. They said the probe wasn't completed when the
business relationship ended.
"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," said Hilary Krane, Nike's general
counsel, in response to questions from the Journal.
Ms. Krane said Nike didn't previously discuss the matter
publicly because "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."
Neymar's spokeswoman said the two sides had been in discussions
since 2019. "It is very strange a case that was supposed to have
happened in 2016, with allegations by a Nike employee, come to
light only at that moment," the spokeswoman said.
Representatives for Neymar disputed the woman's account during
the Cooley probe but the athlete himself refused to be interviewed
by Nike's investigators, some of the people said.
An attorney for the Nike employee didn't respond to requests for
comment.
Neymar da Silva Santos Jr., 29 years old, signed with Nike at
age 13, before he became a professional player in Brazil and then a
star in Europe. He became the most expensive player in the history
of soccer when Paris Saint-Germain paid FC Barcelona a transfer fee
of about $260 million for him in 2017. The flashy goal scorer is a
leader on the Brazilian national team and recently signed a
contract extension with PSG, a top French club, through 2025.
Neymar was the face of the Nike brand in South America with
signature shoes and apparel collections and was among Nike's
highest-paid athletes when the relationship ended. "Neymar Jr will
no longer be a Nike player as of August 31, 2020," a Nike spokesman
said that month.
About two weeks later, on Sept. 12, Puma SE announced it had an
endorsement deal with Neymar. "Welcome to the fam @neymarjr
#KingIsBack, " the official Puma account tweeted. Puma has since
released signature Neymar shoes and the athlete has appeared in
marketing for the German company, a smaller rival to Nike and
Adidas AG.
A spokeswoman for Puma declined to comment.
Neymar discussed his move to Puma in a message last September.
"I grew up watching videos of great football legends such as Pelé,
Cruyff, Matthäus, Eusébio and Maradona," he wrote. "I wish to bring
back the legacy that those athletes created on the pitch. They each
played in Puma, and each of them created their magic in the
King."
Neymar has more than 150 million followers on Instagram. Along
with Puma, he has marketing partnerships with Red Bull, Qatar
Airways and PokerStars, according to his website. In recent months,
Neymar unveiled marketing deals with apparel brand SuperDry and
Epic Games Inc., maker of the popular "Fortnite" videogame.
Neymar traveled to New York City in late May and early June 2016
on a Nike publicity campaign where he visited Citi Field and met
with basketball great Michael Jordan to drum up excitement for a
shoe collaboration between Nike's Jordan brand and the soccer
star.
The woman, a longtime Nike employee who is still employed at the
sneaker giant, was working with other Nike employees to coordinate
logistics for Neymar and his entourage for the Jordan event in
Manhattan, the people said. The group celebrated that evening at
the Up & Down nightclub, the people said.
After midnight, in the early hours of June 2, hotel staff asked
the woman along with another Nike employee to help Neymar, who
appeared to be intoxicated, into his room at the hotel, the woman
told friends and Nike colleagues that night and in subsequent days.
She told these people that when she was briefly left alone in the
room with Neymar, he took off his underwear and tried to force her
to perform oral sex. She said Neymar tried to block her from
leaving the room and then chased her down the hotel hallway while
he was still undressed.
The employee shared the incident with several friends, family
members and Nike employees that night and in the following days and
weeks, the people said.
The employee made a complaint in 2018 when other women at Nike
were stepping forward to share experiences of harassment and
discrimination as part of a survey about the treatment of women at
the company, according to the people and documents.
At the time, the employee shared details about the alleged
incident with Monique Matheson, the head of Nike's human resources
department, and Ms. Krane, Nike's general counsel, according to the
people and documents.
Neymar continued to appear in marketing for Nike the following
year. Around the time of the women's World Cup in France, Neymar
appeared in a June 2019 Nike commercial about female athletes and
their dreams.
Also in June 2019, another woman accused Neymar of rape at a
Paris hotel a month earlier. Neymar said the encounter with the
woman, a Brazilian model, was consensual and he accused her of
attempting to extort him. The Brazilian authorities dropped the
investigation of Neymar, citing a lack of evidence.
Authorities in Brazil later charged the model with slander,
extortion and procedural fraud. The slander and extortion charges
were dismissed in 2019 and she was acquitted of the fraud charge in
2020. A spokeswoman for the model said she stands by her original
account of what happened.
In June 2019 after the Brazilian model made her public
allegation, the Nike employee approached Ms. Krane and Ms. Matheson
to ask the status of the complaint she made about Neymar a year
earlier, according to the people and documents. Nike executives
told the employee they hadn't taken any action because they had
been under the impression she didn't want them to, the people
said.
Ms. Krane said that when the employee first relayed her
allegations to Nike's leadership in 2018, she did so on the
condition of confidentiality. "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," Ms. Krane said.
"In 2019, when the employee later expressed interest in pursuing
the matter, we acted immediately," Ms. Krane said. "From the very
beginning, we have treated the employee's allegations and her
experience with great seriousness."
In 2019, Nike ramped up its investigation into the 2016
incident, and lawyers from Cooley conducted interviews with
witnesses, including Nike employees, the people said and documents
show. Nike helped the employee retain counsel, and Nike agreed to
pay her legal fees, the people said and documents show.
Cooley lawyer Amanda Main said her firm "conducted an extensive
and thorough investigation, both within the company and through
external sources."
Neymar's spokeswoman said, "Similar to the sexual assault
allegations made against him in 2019 -- allegations which the
Brazilian authorities found Neymar Jr. innocent -- these
allegations are false."
In meetings with Nike executives, the woman requested that Nike
tell the public that Neymar's behavior didn't align with its
values, start enforcing morality clauses in athlete contracts and
adopt a code of conduct for endorsement deals, the people said.
On Aug. 30, Nike confirmed that Neymar was no longer with the
brand. It made no mention of the reasons for his departure.
Nike continues to be the jersey sponsor for both Neymar's club
Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazilian national team, meaning its
swoosh logo still appears on uniforms with Neymar's name and his
number 10.
Write to Khadeeja Safdar at khadeeja.safdar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 27, 2021 20:08 ET (00:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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