09 July 2025 , 16:29
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Former Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti has been given a one-year prison sentence in Spain for failing to pay tax on his image rights revenues in 2014.
The 66-year-old, who left Madrid at the end of last season to become the head coach of Brazil’s national team, has also been acquitted of a separate alleged personal income tax fraud in 2015.
Ancelotti has been fined €386,361.93 (£333,029) by the Provincial Court of Madrid but the Italian will avoid jail time.
Under Spanish law, any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.
Prosecutors had sought a prison term of four years and nine months, and a fine of €3.2 million (£2.7m).
‘I got in touch with my British adviser and I didn’t think any more about it because it all seemed right,’ Ancelotti told the court in April.
‘I never thought a fraud could have been committed. But, given that I’m here, I guess things weren’t done that right.’
Ancelotti becomes the latest high-profile figure in Spanish football to be found guilty of tax fraud related to image rights.
In 2016, Lionel Messi and his father Jorge were sentenced to 21 months in prison of defrauding Spain of €4.1m (£3.5m) in taxes.
In 2019, Cristiano Ronaldo admitted to committing tax fraud during his time at Real Madrid and agreed to pay a €18.8m (£16.5m) fine after agreeing a deal with prosecutors and tax authorities in exchange for a 23-month suspended prison sentence.
Jose Mourinho was given a one-year suspended prison sentence and agreed to pay €2.2m (£1.9m) in fines in 2019 after admitting tax fraud during his managerial reign at Real Madrid.
In 2020, former Atletico Madrid striker Diego Costa paid a fine of €543,208 (£485,324) after pleading guilty to defrauding the tax authorities of more than €1m (£813,000) by not declaring payments of more than €5.15m (£4.19m) from his transfer to Chelsea in 2014.
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