Ancelotti sentenced to one year in prison for tax fraud in Spain

Coach Carlo Ancelotti was sentenced to one year in prison for tax fraud committed in 2014. The Madrid court also ordered the Italian to pay a fine of 386,000 euros (R$2.4 million). Since the coach has no criminal record and his debts have already been paid by Real Madrid, the sentence does not entail mandatory prison time.

The conviction arose for Ancelotti's failure to pay taxes on image rights income received in 2014, when he was Real Madrid's coach. According to the local Public Prosecutor's Office's complaint, the Italian allegedly defrauded the Public Treasury in the 2014 (R$2.3 million) and 2015 (R$4.1 million) fiscal years. However, despite being acquitted of alleged 2015 income tax fraud, the court ruled that the resulting civil liability is subject to a fine.

Ancelotti pleaded not guilty at his trial in April. In fact, at the time, prosecutors had requested a four-year and nine-month prison sentence. During the trial, the Italian declared that he never considered defrauding the Treasury and that he followed the instructions of the club and its advisors.

"I was only concerned about receiving a net salary of six million for three years. I never realized anything was wrong. In fact, I didn't even receive any notification that the Public Prosecutor's Office was investigating me," Ancelotti said at the trial.

Finally, Spanish law stipulates that sentences of less than two years for non-violent crimes do not require the defendant to serve time in a closed prison. On the other hand, the coach and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have not issued any statement regarding the case.

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