Real Madrid’s legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will be tried next week for failing to announce income to the Spanish tax office.
Prosecutors are seeking four years and nine months in prison for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of losing more than one million euros ($1.1 million) of unannounced image rights in Spain’s treasury in 2014 and 2015.
A court spokesman said the trial will begin Wednesday and is expected to last for two days.
He added that Ancelotti, as a coach, won a record five Champions League trophy, including three, and he had to attend the hearing.
Prosecutors accused him of announcing his personal compensation he received from Real Madrid in the past two years in his tax returns, although he himself declared himself a tax resident in Spain and said his home was in Madrid.
They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly building Shell’s “confusing” and “complex” system to keep his extra income hidden from his image rights, as well as other sources such as real estate.
In 2023, the Spanish court ordered Ancelotti to trial the incident, but no date was set.
Ancelotti saw the incident last year as “an ancient story I hope will be resolved soon” when he was asked about the case.
He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, left in May 2015, and was appointed Bayern Munich the following year.
The former Italian International midfielder won the European Cup with AC Milan twice, then managed Naples and Everton before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.
