Neymar is set to complete his move to Paris Saint-Germain after Barcelona confirmed that the forward had told his team-mates he plans to leave.
The Catalan club said the Brazilian informed his team-mates on Wednesday “that he had the intention of leaving the club and seeking his future elsewhere, and the coach has given him permission to leave training”.
PSG are ready to meet Neymar’s release clause of €222 (£198m), making him the world’s most expensive player. The fee would dwarf the €105m Manchester United paid Juventus for Paul Pogba last summer. A five-year contract for Neymar has been ready for several days and just needs to be signed.
Barcelona said Neymar left the training ground 30 minutes after arriving on Wednesday.
However, La Liga has indicated it is reluctant to sign off a move for Neymar to PSG.
In an interview with Mundo Deportivo at the weekend, the league’s president, Javier Tebas, said: “We will [make a complaint about PSG] because they infringe Uefa’s Financial Fair Play rules and also the European Union’s competition rules,” he said.
“We will make a complaint to Uefa and if they don’t do anything we will take it to the competition tribunals in Switzerland and Brussels. And, from there, we don’t rule out going through the courts in France and Spain.”
He added: “Two months ago I met the president of PSG at La Liga’s offices and I told him what we were going to do and the reasons why.
“He was angry with me and said that he did not understand. We have a relationship [through Qatar sports channel BeIn] for Spanish football, but La Liga must defend our clubs in these situations.”