José Mourinho has denied accusations of tax evasion made by authorities in Spain. Spanish prosecutors filed a claim against the Manchester United manager that he defrauded the tax authorities of €3.3m (£2.9m) while he managed Real Madrid.
In a statement released on Tuesday, a prosecutor in Madrid said the Portuguese manager had committed two counts of tax fraud in 2011 and 2012, saying that “corporate structures were used by the accused in order to conceal revenues generated from his image rights”.
Mourinho failed to declare that income when he submitted his tax returns in the relevant years “with the intention of deriving unlawful benefit”, the prosecutor alleges.
A judge will decide whether the matter will go to court.
A spokesman for the Manchester United manager said: “José Mourinho has not received any notification with regards to the news published today. To this date, neither the Spanish tax authorities, nor the public prosecutor have contacted José Mourinho or his advisers who were hired for the inspection process.
“José Mourinho, who lived in Spain from June 2010 until May 2013, paid more than €26m in taxes, with an average tax rate over 41%, and accepted the regularisation proposals made by the Spanish tax authorities in 2015 regarding the years of 2011 and 2012 and entered into a settlement agreement regarding 2013.
“The Spanish government in turn, through the tax department, issued a certificate in which it attested that he had regularised his position and was in compliance with all his tax obligations.”
It also emerged on Tuesday that the Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo will testify in court on 31 July over allegations that he defrauded the authorities of €14.8min unpaid taxes between 2011 and 2014.
Madrid’s regional state prosecutor has alleged the Portugal player used what it deemed to be a shell company in the Virgin Islands to “create a screen in order to hide his total income from Spain’s tax office”.
It said Ronaldo “intentionally” did not declare income of €28.4m related to image rights, and declared €11.5m of earnings from 2011-14 when his real income was almost €43m.
The prosecutor also alleged that the player falsely reported income as coming from real estate, which it said had greatly reduced his tax rate.
Ronaldo has denied any wrongdoing, while Real Madrid released a statement saying they had “full confidence” in their player and were “absolutely convinced that [he] will prove his total innocence”.
In July last year, the Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge, were sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud. A court in Barcelona found that Messi and his father had evaded tax on his image rights, with more than €4m owed in back payments.
Because the court’s sentence was less than two years and neither Messi had a criminal record, neither was sent to prison.
Prosecutors alleged that tax havens in Belize and Uruguay were used to conceal earnings from image rights. Messi said he knew nothing about his financial affairs, while his father said he had been told by a legal adviser that the practice was legal.