Alleged tax fraud: Mourinho accepts one-year prison sentence

Former Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has accepted a one-year
prison sentence for defrauding the Spanish state of €3.3million
(£2.9m), a Spanish court filing showed on Tuesday, although the
Portuguese will not serve any jail time.

The filing said the tax ministry and Mourinho’s defence team had
agreed to exchange the 12-month prison sentence with a daily fine
of €250 (£220) for 24 months, equivalent to €182,500 (£160,000), as
under Spanish law jail terms under two years can be served under
probation.

The court filing said Mourinho leased his image rights to
companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Ireland in 2004
but left those earnings out of his tax returns from 2011 and 2012,
when he was coach of Real Madrid and a fiscal resident in Spain,
‘with the aim of obtaining illicit profits’

Aside from the one-year prison sentence, Mourinho has been fined
€1.9m (£1.7m), 60 per cent of the amount defrauded, as well as
€121,764 (£107,000) in interest .

The 56-year-old and his representatives could not immediately be
reached for comment.

The news comes less than two months after Mourinho was sacked
from his job as Manchester United manager.

He left Real Madrid in 2013 after three seasons at the club, in
which time he won one La Liga title and one Copa del Rey.

The settlement is the latest in a line of tax cases involving
players and managers from Spain’s two biggest clubs, Real Madrid
and Barcelona.

Lionel Messi exchanged a 21-month sentence for a €2m (£1.8m)
fine in 2016, the same year his then-Barcelona and Argentina
team-mate Javier Mascherano was given a one-year suspended
sentence.