Barcelona‘s summer transfer window went from bad to worse after their official Twitter account was hacked to claim they had signed Angel di Maria from PSG.
The La Liga giants have endured a trying offseason with star man Neymar leaving in a £200m deal for Paris while the chases for replacements, namely Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele, have hit dead ends.
Matters hit a new low in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a message on the official club Twitter account tweeted: “Welcome Angel Di Maria to FC Barcelona! #DiMariaFCB”.
The tweet was retweeted thousands of times before a subsequent message confirmed the hoax. The message would go on to appear and subsequently disappear over the next hour before the club security finally retook control of the account.
Saudi Arabian group OurMine have gone on to claim responsibility for the hack.
The hack came just hours after it was confirmed the club intended to sue Neymar for £7.8m in damages for an alleged breach of contract following his move to PSG earlier this month.
The £7.8m fee relates to a ‘loyalty bonus’ which was included in Neymar’s contract, and paid to the player, when he penned a five-year extension in October of last year. But the Catalans are now seeking to reclaim this bonus after the “unilateral termination of the contract” which enabled Neymar to swap Barcelona for Paris.
Barcelona say that they will ask PSG to pay the compensation if Neymar does not. (INDEPENDENT)