REAL MADRID coach Carlo Ancelotti attended the opening of his trial on tax evasion charges in Spain today.
The highly successful Italian manager spent two-and-a-half hours inside the Madrid-based courthouse before telling reporters “all is well” upon leaving in a car.
Spanish prosecutors have accused Ancelotti of defrauding the state of €1 million (£834,371) in 2014 and 2015. State prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of up to four years and nine months on two counts of tax fraud.
They accused Ancelotti in March 2024 of having used shell companies to hide his true earnings. Prosecutors claimed Ancelotti, for example, used one company that lacked “any real (economic) activity” in the Virgin Islands as part of an alleged scheme.
Ancelotti had denied any wrongdoing before the trial.
He proclaimed his innocence when first accused last year, arguing he was not a fiscal resident of Spain during part of that time. Prosecutors disagree.
“I already paid the fine, the money is with them, and now the lawyers are talking to try to find a solution,” Ancelotti said in March 2024. “Let’s see what the judge says.”
The 65-year-old Ancelotti is one of football’s most successful coaches. He has won the Champions League a record five times, three with Madrid and twice with AC Milan, and is the only coach to have won domestic league titles in England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
He coached Madrid from 2013-15 before starting his current stint in 2021.