Spanish court hands Carlo Ancelotti one-year prison sentence for tax fraud

MADRID : A Spanish court on Wednesday handed Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti a one-year prison sentence for failing to pay tax on his image rights revenues in 2014 when the Italian was Real Madrid manager, according to a statement.

Ancelotti, who managed Real Madrid from 2013 to 2015 and between 2021 and 2025, was cleared of a similar charge for 2015, as the court could not prove he had stayed long enough in Spain to incur tax liabilities, the court added. He moved to London after Real Madrid sacked him in May 2015.

Under Spanish law any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time.

The 66-year-old former Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Chelsea manager is the latest of several soccer celebrities to be investigated and convicted by the Spanish tax authority for alleged tax fraud.