Carlo Ancelotti: Spanish prosecutors demand five-year prison sentence for Real Madrid coach over tax fraud
Spanish state prosecutors have called for Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti to spend four years and nine months in prison on allegations of tax fraud.
The Italian, 64, is accused of using shell companies to hide parts of his income during his first spell as Los Blancos coach, when he managed the team between 2013 and 2015.
On Wednesday, prosecutors filed their claim of two accounts of tax fraud over a sum worth €1,062,079 (£907,573).
Despite stating his residency status for tax purposes as being in Madrid during his first stint as manager, Ancelotti is accused of having failed to declare income on image rights worth £330,259 in the year of 2014 and a further £577,615 in 2015.
They claim Ancelotti only declared the income he received from the club and not his earnings for image rights. It is also alleged he created a “confusing” system of shell companies to hide that extra income.
Documentation states that “in order to avoid taxation on the income from said image rights”, Ancelotti “simulated’ the transfer of his image rights to a “complex” and “confusing” network of trusts and companies which “lacked real activity” and were domiciled outside of Spain.
It adds: “He thus pursued the opacity to the Spanish Public Treasury and the concealment of the real beneficiary of the income from his image rights, so that neither he himself nor any of said companies would have to pay taxes on the large amounts received in Spain or abroad.”
Multiple top sports figures have received penalties over their tax affairs in recent years. Former Madrid coach Jose Mourinho received a one-year suspended sentence after reaching a guilty plea for tax fraud in 2019 while players including Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have also been found guilty.
Former Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Everton coach Ancelotti won the Copa del Rey and Champions League during his first spell in charge of Madrid before being sacked at the end of the 2014-15 season.
He returned in 2021 to lead Real to another Champions League title, as well as the Club World Cup and LaLiga.
Madrid face RB Leipzig tonight in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, protecting a 1-0 aggregate lead.
Real Madrid have been approached for comment.
