Jose Mourinho accepts guilty plea for tax fraud in Spain

Former Manchester United manager received one-year suspended sentence

José Mourinho  has to pay nearly €2 million  to Spanish  tax authorities as part of the deal.  Photograph: Joseba Etxaburu/Reuters
José Mourinho has to pay nearly €2 million to Spanish tax authorities as part of the deal. Photograph: Joseba Etxaburu/Reuters

Former Manchester United manager José Mourinho has received a one-year suspended sentence after reaching a guilty plea for tax fraud in Spain.

Mr Mourinho will not have to serve time after admitting he defrauded Spanish authorities in 2011 and 2012.

Sentences for two years or less for first-time offenders can be suspended in Spain.

The filing said the tax ministry and Mr Mourinho’s defence team had agreed to exchange the 12-month prison sentence with a daily fine of €250 for 24 months, equivalent to €182,500, as under Spanish law jail terms under two years can be served under probation.

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The court filing said Mr Mourinho leased his image rights to companies based in the British Virgin Islands and Ireland in 2004 but left those earnings out of his tax returns from 2011 and 2012, when he was coach of Real Madrid and a fiscal resident in Spain, "with the aim of obtaining illicit profits".

Mr Mourinho appeared before a judge in a Madrid court on Tuesday to confirm the plea agreement he had reached with prosecutors.

The former Real Madrid coach still has to pay nearly €2 million to tax authorities as part of the deal.

– AP/Reuters