Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti facing five-year prison sentence over alleged €1 million tax fraud

Ancelotti is facing two charges of having defrauded the Treasury of over €1 million (£850k) between 2014 and 2015 during his first stint as Real Madrid manager, according to Relevo. The Prosecutor's Office is now calling for a jail sentence of four years and nine months for the Italian.

The issue relates to Ancelotti only including renumeration from his job as Madrid manager in his tax return and allegedly not including income from image rights - instead transferring the sum to Vapia Limited. The amounts relate to €386,361 in 2014 and €675,718 in 2015. If found guilty, one of the most decorated managers in footballing history could see his career end in disgrace.

According to prosecutors, Ancelotti transferred his image rights to Vapia for a period of 10 years for £21m (€25) in July 2013 and then allegedly appointed himself at the helm of the company, before reducing that to three years and dropping the sale price to £854,000 ($1.06m). During his time at Madrid and while domiciled in Spain, Ancelotti allegedly 'omitted all income corresponding to the exploitation of his image rights' to the tune of £1.1m ($1.4m) in 2014 and £2.5m ($3.1m) the following year.

Ancelotti, whose Madrid side sit top of La Liga, is likely to be asked about these accusations. The 64-year-old, who allegedly set up a 'complex' and 'confusing' network of trusts and companies that allowed his image right earnings to be domiciled outside of Spain, will wait to see what comes from this investigation.