Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will stand trial on charges of tax evasion during his first stint as coach of the club.
According to the newspaper “AS,” Ancelotti is accused of defrauding the Spanish public treasury of more than one million euros up to the 2014-2015 financial year.
If Ancelotti is found guilty, he faces a severe penalty of four and nine months in prison, in addition to a hefty fine of up to four million euros.
At a press conference, Ancelotti commented, “I must go and testify before the public prosecutor, and I will do so. I won the first trial, and I have complete faith in the law and justice.”
He added, “I’m not worried at all. What bothers me is that they say I committed fraud, but I will respond to that in the trial.”
The case concerns Ancelotti’s tax returns, which only reported his personal salary as a coach, and omitted income from the exploitation of his image rights, claiming he transferred them to other entities. The prosecutor considers this to be fraudulent tax evasion.
