Spanish prosecutors accuse Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti of tax fraud
AP Reporters
Spanish state prosecutors have accused Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti of tax fraud, claiming he used shell companies to hide parts of his income during his first stint at the club a decade ago.
Prosecutors in Madrid said in a statement on Wednesday that Ancelotti is accused of two counts of tax fraud and are seeking a prison sentence of four years and nine months.
They accused the Italian coach of having defrauded €1 million in 2014 and 2015 by only declaring the income he received from Real Madrid while omitting his income from image rights.
Many professional players and managers set up a company that owns the rights to use their name and image for commercial purposes, but prosecutors claim Ancelotti set up a “confusing” system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings.
Ancelotti allegedly used companies “lacking any real activity” based outside Spain “so that neither he nor the mentioned companies had to pay taxes on the large sums earned in Spain or outside our country”, the prosecutors said.
The 64-year-old coached Madrid from 2013-15 before rejoining the club in 2021.
Ancelotti is one of football’s most successful coaches. He is the only coach to have won the Champions League four times, twice with Madrid and twice with AC Milan, and the only coach to have won domestic league titles in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
He is the latest in a string of major figures in football to face a crackdown by Spanish authorities over unpaid taxes, although none have actually been sent to prison so far.
Former Madrid coach Jose Mourinho received a one-year suspended sentence after reaching a guilty plea for tax fraud in 2019.
Star players Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo — among others — have also been found guilty of tax fraud in Spain. Similar to Ancelotti, Mourinho, Ronaldo and Messi were accused of using shell companies outside Spain to hide revenue from image rights.
Ronaldo agreed to pay a fine of nearly €19 million in 2019, and was handed a two-year suspended sentence.
Messi and his father were found guilty of defrauding tax authorities of €4.1 million but also avoided a jail sentence by paying hefty fines.
In Spain, a judge can suspend a sentence of less than two years for first-time offenders.
Madrid is leading the Spanish league and is set to play Leipzig on Wednesday for a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals.