The Spanish Public Prosecutors Office are pressing criminal charges against the Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti for alleged tax fraud.

Ancelotti was charged in 2020 after being accused of failing to pay roughly €1million in taxes. Spanish prosecutors said this was in relation to image rights earned during his time as Real Madrid manager in 2014 and 2015.

According to the state prosecutor´s press statement  Ancelotti of two counts of tax fraud, offences that carry a potential prison sentence of four years and nine months. They assert that the Italian coach evaded €1 million in taxes during 2014 and 2015 by only declaring the income he received from Real Madrid while omitting his income from image rights.

Prosecutors allege that Ancelotti established a complex network of shell companies to obscure his supplementary income. Reportedly, he employed companies with no genuine operations, domiciled outside of Spain, ‘to avoid tax obligations on substantial earnings generated within and beyond our borders’, as stated by prosecutors.

Ancelotti, 64, coached Real Madrid from 2013-15 before rejoining the club in 2021.

Ancelotti is one of football’s most successful coaches. He is the only coach to have won the Champions League four times, twice with Madrid and twice with AC Milan, and the only coach to have won domestic league titles in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.

He is the latest in a string of major football profiles to face a crackdown by Spanish authorities over unpaid taxes, although none have actually been sent to prison so far.

In recent years the Spanish tax office has taken their share of footballing scalps including José Mourinho received a one-year suspended sentence after reaching a guilty plea for tax fraud in 2019 as well as two of the Liga´s biggest names, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo who were both found guilty of tax fraud and paid millions of Euros in fines and interest.

Ancelotti is expected to contest the charges against him.

If convicted he could face up to two years in prison.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE MADRID NEWS