Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti will stand trial next week in Madrid on charges of tax fraud, the Madrid Superior Court of Justice announced on Friday.
Ancelotti is accused of defrauding the Spanish Treasury of more than € 1 million in 2014 and 2015, for which the prosecutor is requesting a prison sentence of four years and nine months.
His trial will be held on Wednesday and Thursday next.
According to the prosecution and the Spanish tax authorities, Ancelotti declared only his income as Real Madrid coach for those years and not his earnings from image rights and other sources, including real estate.
Despite stating he was a tax resident in Spain and living in Madrid, Ancelotti, who is Italian, only reported the salary he received from Real Madrid, the prosecutor detailed in 2024.
The omission was deliberate, claims the prosecutor, who accuses Ancelotti of using a “complex and confusing network” of trusts and intermediary companies to channel his image rights income.
“I am convinced of my innocence; I was not a Spanish resident in 2015,” Ancelotti told the Spanish TV channel Movistar+ in March 2024. “This is an old story that began eight years ago with a 2015 tax return, where the financial services claimed I was a resident in Spain.”
Ancelotti coached Real Madrid between 2013 and 2015 before returning to the club in 2021.
