Brazil Coach Carlo Ancelotti Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Tax Evasion

Spanish authorities have sentenced Brazil manager Carlo Ancelotti to a year in prison by a Spanish court for tax evasion with the option of a fine.

Ancelotti, who left Real Madrid at the end of the last European season, was accused of failing to pay 1m euros (£830,000) in tax on his salary during his first spell in charge of Real Madrid between 2013 and 2015.

Being a first-time offender, Ancelotti would have to pay a fine of 386,361.93 euros (£333,045.92) to avoid jail time, as under Spanish law, any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

Earlier Trial

Earlier this year, Ancelotti said he “never thought about committing fraud” as he testified in court stating he was offered a net salary of 6m euros (£5.1m) by Real and that he left the structure of it to his financial advisers.

“I thought it was quite normal because at that time all the players and the previous coach had [done the same],” he said.

Ancelotti eventually paid back the debt in full in December 2021.

Ancelotti is not the first football manager or player to be caught in a tax evasion web by Spanish authorities. Lionel Messi, then with Barcelona, was initially given a 21-month prison sentence in 2017, but this punishment was then reduced to a fine of 252,000 euros, with no jail term attached.

Real striker Cristiano Ronaldo also accepted an 18.8m euro fine in 2019 while Jose Mourinho, another former Real Madrid boss, was fined 2.2m euros relating to tax charges during his time as Real manager from 2011-12.