Carlo Ancelotti could face four-year prison sentence as Real Madrid head coach goes on trial in Spain

Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti could face a prison sentence of over four years as he prepares to stand trial over charges of defrauding the Spanish treasury.

Ancelotti's trial will begin, as per Marca, next Wednesday at the Madrid Provincial Court.

The Real Madrid boss has been accused of 'defraud[ing] the public treasury of €1,062,079 in the fiscal years 2014 (€386,361) and 2015 (€675,718)' during his first stint in charge of Los Blancos.

Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence of four years and nine months if found guilty, the prosecutor's office has reported. Prison sentences are suspended in Spain only if they are up to two years in length.

Charges against Ancelotti, as reported by The Athletic, involve two offences against Spain's Public Treasury and centre around allegedly failing to include image rights in his tax returns despite declaring himself as a tax resident in Spain.

It is alleged he 'purportedly engaged in the simulation of image rights to entities lacking real activity and resided outside Spain', therefore 'obscur[ing] the true beneficiary of the income from his image rights, thus evading taxes both in Spain and abroad'.

He has also been accused of signing private contracts to assign his image rights to entities, before modifying agreements to reduce prices significantly.

Ancelotti hasn't commented on the latest reports, but did address the allegations during a March 2024 interview.

He said: "It's an old story, from 2015.

"The Prosecutor's Office thinks I was a resident of Spain [at that time] and I wasn't.

"The money is already in the Prosecutor's Office. Now it's up to the lawyer to find a solution.

"I am convinced that I was not a resident and that I am innocent. Let's see what the judge says."

Several high-profile players and managers in Spanish football have faced tax fraud cases in recent years. The offences usually result in a suspended sentence being awarded.

In 2018, Barcelona legend Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge, were each given a 21-month suspended prison sentence for tax evasion.

Ex-Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, struck a deal with prosecutors to pay a fine of nearly €2 million, and accepted a one-year suspended prison sentence for tax fraud in 2019.

And in the same year, Real icon Cristiano Ronaldo accepted a staggering £17 million fine and a suspended two-year prison sentence - the maximum permitted without being required to serve jail time - after tax evasion allegations.