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.
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.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi avoided a jail sentence for a similar scheme involving image rights, paying several million in a “corrective payment” in back taxes and fines
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior was at the centre of a row when Barcelona was fined millions after being charged with tax fraud over Neymar’s signing – but avoided admitting the offence.
Culled from BBC sports
