Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has cut a deal with a court in Madrid over
tax evasion charges, accepting an €18.8m (£16.6m) fine.
A huge media presence met the player outside the court, after a judge refused his
request to appear by video or to enter the building by car to avoid the spotlight.
The deal, agreed in advance, includes a 23-month jail sentence.
But in Spain, convicts do not usually do time for sentences under two years.
The non-violent nature of Ronaldo’s offence means he is unlikely to spend any time at
all in jail, serving it on probation instead.
The court appearance lasted mere minutes as Ronaldo accepted the deal offered by
prosecutors.
The current Juventus player, who played for the club in Italy the night before, arrived
smiling and giving a thumbs-up, apparently unfazed by the media presence.
His lawyers had argued that given his fame, avoiding the main entrance was needed for
the player’s security.
Journalist Ruben Canizares posted a video of the footballer arriving at the provincial
court with his fiancee Georgina Rodriguez.
Ronaldo, five-time winner of Europe’s Ballon d’Or and often titled one of the world’s best
players, was accused of avoiding paying tax in Spain between 2010 and 2014, when he
was playing for Real Madrid and based in the Spanish capital.
Forbes lists the 33-year-old as the third-wealthiest athlete in the world, with
estimated earnings of $108m (€95m) a year.
The case centres around lucrative image rights deals. Prosecutors say the proceeds
were funnelled through low-tax companies in foreign nations to avoid paying the
required tax.
In court, as part of his deal, Ronaldo acknowledged four incidents amounting to €5.7m
owed, according to Spanish-language news agency EFE.
In 2017, when the allegations first emerged, prosecutors said it was a “voluntary and
conscious breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain”.
But Ronaldo’s lawyers said it is all down to a misunderstanding over what was and was
not required under Spanish law, and deny any deliberate attempt to evade tax.
The deal, struck in June last year, had to be agreed with Spain’s tax authorities.
Ronaldo is not the only high-profile player to face the wrath of Spain’s tax system.
His former Real Madrid team-mate Xabi Alonso also appeared in court on Tuesday in
connection with similar offences amounting to about €2m.
Alonso was appearing before the court for the first time, facing a potential sentence of
up to five years. Unlike Ronaldo, he has not yet struck any deal with authorities and has
maintained his innocence.
Shortly after Alonso’s trial began, the court suspended proceedings to consider whether
it was competent to hear the case, or if it should be referred to another criminal court,
EFE reports.
The longer sentence prosecutors are seeking means that Alonso could, unlike Ronaldo,
face jail time.
There are several other examples of footballers facing Spain’s courts in recent years:
The recent crackdown on high-profile footballers follows the removal of a tax exemption
in 2010. Known as the “Beckham law”, it had allowed footballers to curb their taxes.
Ronaldo also faces another ongoing legal battle: the football superstar is accused of
rape in Las Vegas in 2009, a charge which he denies.
