The Manchester United manager is accused of defrauding the Spanish tax agency out of over €3 million and will face trial on Friday. Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he has paid to settle accusations of tax fraud in Spain. The 54-year-old attended court in Pozuelo de Alcarcon on Friday to answer charges of tax fraud totalling €3.3million, which he has always denied.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, Mourinho said “the case is closed” and that he only “I was told that my tax situation was completely legal,” he said, as quoted by ESPN. “A few years later I was told that there was an investigation opened and they told me that to regularise my situation I had to pay sum X. “I did not answer, I did not argue, I have paid and signed with the state that I am definitely in compliance and the case is closed. That is why I am here, nothing else.”
Mourinho was summoned at the end of September over allegations he defrauded Spanish tax authorities of €3.3m between 2011 and 2012, while he was head coach of Real Madrid. When the charges were announced in June, Mourinho’s representatives issued a statement denying he had been contacted by prosecutors and insisting his taxes had been paid in full. United were forced to rearrange their pre-game media duties ahead of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Chelsea due to the hearings but Mourinho insisted it was not a distraction.
“It’s just a change of normal training time because I want to be there and I can’t be there in the morning so I have to change the timings,” he said on Thursday. Mourinho is the latest high-profile football figure to face the court over unpaid taxes in Spain recently.
After Lionel Messi was sentenced to 21 months in prison which he exchanged for a €250,000 fine, former Real Madrid defender Ricardo Carvalho was given seven-months in jail and forced to pay €142, 882, while Cristiano Ronaldo has faced charges too.
Source: Goal
