Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of Real Madrid, has been accused by prosecutors in Madrid, Spain, of defrauding the Treasury out of approximately £854,000 (€1 million), according to Spanish sources.
Despite being registered as a resident of Spain for tax purposes, the 64-year-old coach is alleged to have failed to pay the required taxes throughout his first tenure as Madrid’s manager, from 2013 to 2015. This information was obtained by the Daily Mail through reports from Spain.
Ancelotti is suspected of having transferred the money he received from his image rights to other organizations, despite having declared his revenues from his Real Madrid wage.
The Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Madrid has charged the former head coach of Chelsea and AC Milan with two offences against Spain’s Public Treasury. According to Marca, if Ancelotti is found guilty, a four-year and nine-month prison sentence has been demanded.
The entire amount under consideration is from the fiscal years 2014 and 2015; according to reports, Ancelotti failed to declare £33,813 (€39,575) in the first year and £577,340 (€675,718) in the second.
The 64-year-old established a “complex” and “confusing” network of trusts and businesses, according to the prosecutors’ official statement announcing the allegations, which permitted the money received from his image rights to be domiciled outside of Spain.
Prosecutors claim that in July 2013, not long after signing his initial three-year Real Madrid contract, Ancelotti sold his image rights to Vapia Limited for a sum of £21 million (€25 million) for a ten-year term.
‘’In this way, the accused used the company Vapia LLP so that it formally presented itself to Real Madrid as the owner of the image rights, even though it had not even been formally attributed to them since the aforementioned transfer contract of July 1, 2013, was with Vapia Limited,’ part of the prosecutors’ letter stated.
If found guilty, the veteran coach, who has won four Champions League trophies, could face a four-year prison term for defrauding the Spanish Treasury.