Portuguese football manager Jose Mourinho has agreed to a one-year prison sentence in Spain for tax fraud.
He will not go to jail because Spain hardly ever enforces sentences of less than two years for non-violent or first-time offenders.
Instead, a one-year sentence will be exchanged for a fine of €182,500 (£161,000, $208,000). This is in addition to a separate fine of €2m.
Mourinho was accused of owing €3.3m to Spanish tax authorities from his time managing Real Madrid in 2011-2012.
Image rights
Prosecutors argued he had created offshore companies to manage his image rights and hide the earnings from tax officials, reports said.
Spanish authorities said that Mourinho, who has managed at Chelsea and Manchester United, had set up multiple businesses in places like the British Virgin Islands to manage his image rights.
They argued that was designed to obscure his financial gain from image rights – which he did not declared in his tax statements after he moved to Spain.
Crackdown
The Spanish tax authorities have taken a harder line against foreign footballers who fail to pay tax on their worldwide income, especially related to the sale of image rights, as seen in the widely-covered cases of Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi and current Manchester United striker Alexis Sanchez.
Most recently, global football icon Cristiano Ronaldo made a deal with a court in Madrid over tax evasion charges, accepting an €18.8m fine.
Also, Ronaldo’s former team mate, Xabi Alonso, was in court on 22 January in connection with similar offences amounting to about €2m.
He is facing a potential sentence of up to five years, which means he could serve time behind bars. His trial was postponed until further notice.
