A court in Madrid sentenced Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti to one year in prison and fined him €386,000 ($452,000) on Wednesday for not paying taxes on the money he earned from his image rights while he was the manager of Real Madrid in 2014, according to a statement from the court.
Ancelotti will likely get a suspended sentence because Spanish law usually does not require someone with no prior convictions to serve jail time for nonviolent crimes if the sentence is less than two years.
Ancelotti, who led Real Madrid from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2021 to 2025, was found not guilty of a similar charge related to 2015. The court stated it could not prove that he stayed in Spain long enough during that time to owe any taxes. After being fired by Real Madrid in May 2015, he moved to London.
Carlos Sánchez, who is Ancelotti’s press officer, informed The Associated Press that the coach “will not make any comments for now.”
Brazil’s football confederation released a statement saying they are monitoring the situation.
Prosecutors are asking for a prison sentence of four years and nine months, along with a fine of €3.2 million ($3.7 million).
They claim that in 2014 and 2015, Ancelotti reported only his salary from Madrid and did not include his image rights income on his Spanish tax returns.
Ancelotti joins a list of well-known players and coaches being investigated by Spanish tax authorities.
Many cases have been resolved outside of court, including those involving top players like Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Spain’s Diego Costa, who paid large fines.
However, in 2023, the Supreme Court confirmed the acquittal of former Bayer Leverkusen and current Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso after he chose not to settle and maintained his innocence.
Ancelotti, who celebrated his 66th birthday last month, is one of football’s most accomplished coaches. He is the only coach to win the Champions League five times—three times with Madrid and twice with AC Milan—and has also won domestic league titles in England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France.
Ancelotti finished his second term at Real Madrid in May to take on the role of head coach for Brazil’s national team.
