A recent Daily Mirror report cited a book called “Football Leaks”, alleging that Hoffenheim only received £5.8m, just 20 percent, of Roberto Firmino’s £29m transfer from the German club to Merseyside in June 2015.
The book goes on to suggest that the rest of the money went to Transfair, a company also run by Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp.
However, in an email to ESPN FC, the club’s director of media and public relations, Holger Kleim, rebuffed these reports and revealed the German team actually received ‘about 70 percent’ of the transfer fee.
He continued, “I assure you that the amount of money involved in the Roberto Firmino transfer to Liverpool that shall have stayed with TSG Hoffenheim is much bigger than the amount that has been reported by different media today.”
FIFA have not yet said whether or not they are looking into the Firmino transfer; in the same week as it was confirmed they have commenced an inquiry into the world-record deal, that took Paul Pogba from Juventus to Manchester United, with reports suggesting that his agent Mino Raiola took a staggering £41m cut from the deal.
Liverpool have not yet commented on the Firmino reports.
