Ancelotti declares that Real Madrid suggested a formula for image rights: “I never thought about defrauding”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti has declared in the trial for an alleged fiscal fraud of one million euros in the fiscal exercises of 2014 and 2015 that “never” thought of defrauding, stating that it was Real Madrid that suggested a formula to collect the image rights that he understood that it was “correct” and with which the white club would obtain fiscal records.

The Italian coach faces a fiscal request of four years and nine months in prison for two crimes against the Public Treasury. The tax debt has been charged by the Tax Agency through embargo, finally ascending to a total of 1,217,958.24 euros, a constraint of 243,593.71 euros and 47,298.10 by interest. The prosecutor claims two penalties that amount to a total of 3,186,237 euros.

In the previous issues, the defendant’s lawyer has requested that a document in which Ancelotti instructed Real Madrid to proceed to the payment of the money required, given that the State Advocacy is incorporated into the proceedings.

In his statement, the coach Merengue has detailed that when he arrives at the Real Madrid team he signed a federative contract in July 2013, agreeing that 15% of his salary would charge him for image rights and in which he talked about a cessionary society for the aforementioned rights.

To the prosecutor’s questions about the companies created to allegedly avoid the performance for image rights to the Treasury, he has indicated that he has always negotiated contracts to the net and that in this case, he negotiated six million euros per season. “I have never given importance to image rights. The coaches are not so important but the players because they sell t -shirts. I cared only to charge six net,” he said.

The coach has insisted that “never” realized that “something was not correct” and that in 2018, he was aware of the facts for which he is judged because until then the Prosecutor’s Office did not communicate anything about the alleged fiscal fraud. “I never thought about defrauding because it has never happened to me,” he said,

In addition, he stressed that it was Real Madrid himself who suggested a formula for collecting image rights, used by the rest of the players and that it seemed “normal.” “I thought it was correct. I contacted my fiscal advisor. I never thought it could be a fraud,” he reiterated. To questions about his intervention in image rights, he pointed out that “he had no more participation beyond what my fiscal advisors did.”

During the interrogation of his lawyer, the coach explained that Real Madrid was going to pay him a part of image rights and that he made a 50% transfer in this concept, reiterating that this issue is not important for the technicians.

“They don’t sell t -shirts. I thought it was to give me back the salary not charged,” he added, indicating that through this system he won anything. “I wanted six net and at the end of the season I had six net,” he reiterated.

Omitted image rights

The prosecutor considers that although he confirmed his status as a resident in Spain for fiscal purposes, and that he reflected that his home was in Madrid, he only recorded in his income statements the personal work remuneration of Real Madrid and omitted the performance corresponding to the exploitation of his image rights that fictitiously intended to have yielded to other entities.

The accusation brief recalls that on July 4, 2013, the defendant signed a professional athlete employment contract as Real Madrid coach for the period between July 5, 2013 and June 30, 2016, “setting and specifying in his remuneration for that period, in addition to work yields, yields derived from the transfer of image rights to the club.”

As of July 2013, the defendant went to work and reside in Spain, setting his habitual domicile and residence in Madrid, although his professional relationship with the club on May 25, 2015 ceased in advance.

However, from his arrival in Spain until approximately the month of October of 2015, he had this leased house, Spain being that same year “its main center of personal and professional and professional interests.” In fact, he obtained 14,867,622.25 euros from Real Madrid only for work yields, “thus being taxed for his universal income in our country also in this year 2015”.

The Prosecutor’s Office argues that the defendant, in order to avoid taxation for the returns of said image rights that he received from the club or other brands for participating in some events, went to channel the collection of said rights “to a complex and confusing framework of trusts and interposed societies.”