Nike Split With Neymar after Sexual-Assault investigation

Nike has announced that they have terminated their lucrative sponsorship contract with Neymar, after the player "refused to cooperate" in the internal investigation into his sexual assault on an employee.

Nike, which has sponsored Neymar for 15 years, has not previously stated a reason for terminating their deal with Neymar.

But they ended its partnership with Brazilian last September and the PSG striker also signed with Puma. Nike did not mention Neymar because of his termination at the time, but now it has confirmed that the decision was made after Neymar was accused of assaulting an employee of the company.

in 2018, a Nike employee revealed that in 2016, after a joint promotional event with Neymar in New York, the player violently assaulted him. A year later, Nike hired a team of independent in-house lawyers to investigate the matter.

Nike has confirmed that the findings of this investigation are not "conclusive", but the company decided to drop Neymar because he "refused to cooperate in this investigation to confirm or deny the allegations made against him by a Nike employee."

"No single set of facts emerged that would enable us to speak substantively on the matter,"

Nike said.

"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."