Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti will face prosecution for tax fraud.

BarcelonaThe Spanish Prosecutor's Office is seeking a sentence of four years and nine months in prison and a fine of €3.1 million for Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti for tax fraud exceeding one million euros, the same amount the Treasury seized from his club salary. The trial date has been set: the Italian manager will appear in the dock on Wednesday, April 2, at the Provincial Court of Madrid.

The court document, to which this newspaper has had access, refers to his first spell as manager at Real Madrid (2013-2015). The Prosecutor's Office accuses Ancelotti of failing to declare €386,361 in 2014 and €675,718 more in 2015 related to image rights, using "a complex and confusing network of trusts and interposed companies."

The document continues: "[Ancelotti] simulated the transfer of his image rights to entities with no real activity and no capacity for exploitation, which were domiciled outside of Spain, thus pursuing opacity before the Spanish public treasury and concealing the beneficiary of the same rights for the large amounts received, neither in Spain nor outside our country."

The state body maintains that "from July 2013, the accused began to work and live in Spain, establishing his domicile and habitual residence in Madrid, although he ceased his professional relationship with the club early on May 25, 2015." Therefore, the Prosecutor's Office considers that from his arrival in Spain until approximately October 2015, he had a rented home, and that same year Spain was "his main center of personal relationships and economic and professional interests."

Regarding the amounts, the prosecution emphasizes that Ancelotti received 14.8 million euros from Real Madrid in employment income alone, but he should have paid tax on his universal income tax return in 2015 as well, but failed to do so. According to the prosecution, he filed his 2014 and 2015 income tax returns for Real Madrid's remuneration on time, "but, in an attempt to unjustifiably evade his obligations to the public treasury, he omitted all income corresponding to the exploitation of his image rights." Thus, he owed a refund on his tax return for both years. However, Carlo Ancelotti is accused of two crimes against the public treasury, corresponding to the 2014 and 2015 financial years.