*Will, However, Pay About N700m Fine
Carlo Ancelotti, the manager of the Brazilian national football team, was on Wednesday, July 9, sentenced to one year in prison by a Spanish court after failing to pay tax on his image rights during his first stint as Real Madrid manager.
During his tenure at the Bernabeu, Ancelotti won a staggering 15 trophies with Los Blancos, including one Champions League trophy in his first tenure between 2013 and 2015, and two in his second, between 2021 and 2025.
The former Real Madrid head coach has been locked in a protracted battle with Spain’s legal system, with the 65-year-old appearing in the Provincial Court in Madrid, the Spanish capital, in April.
The Italian stood accused of deliberately misinforming the tax office during his first spell in charge of the Spanish giants between 2014 and 2015 to avoid paying more than €1m (£833,000) in income tax.
When asked about his income from the transfer of his image rights to Real Madrid, Ancelotti said: ”I was only concerned with collecting six million net for three years, and I never realized anything was wrong, and I never received any communication that the Prosecutor’s Office was investigating me.
”When Real Madrid proposed this to me (referring to the transfer of image rights), I contacted my English advisor and never went into the matter because everything seemed correct to me. I didn’t think it could be fraud, although if I’m here, I believe things weren’t so correct.”
Ancelotti continued to deny wrongdoing throughout his trial.
But despite Wednesday’s verdict, Ancelotti is unlikely to serve jail time due to the specifics of Spanish law, which rarely require those convicted of a non-violent crime to serve their sentence if one year or less.
He will however, have to pay a fine believed to be worth €386,000 (£332,768), or about
N694,567,678.62.
The Italian manager has previously admitted to underpaying tax in 2014, but blamed this on mistakes made by his accountants.
He insisted he did not break any laws in 2015 as he did not spend the 183 days in Spain needed to pay tax.
But prosecutors claimed Ancelotti’s main source of income during this period was from Real as he did not take charge of Bayern Munich until 2016, and had been pursuing a sentence of four years in prison if found guilty.
Ancelotti called time on his second stint at the Spanish giants this summer, shortly before confirming his long-discussed move to join the Brazilian national team set-up.
