Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho coughs up for Spanish tax fraud charges

MANCHESTER UNITED manager Jose Mourinho has announced that a tax fraud case from his time in charge of Real Madrid in Spain has now been closed.

Mourinho allegedly owed almost €3.3million in taxes to the Spanish government. He told national press today (Friday) that he had paid a fee to settle the charges after attending a brief hearing in a Madrid court.

The Man Utd manager claimed that he thought his taxes were up to date when he left Spain in 2013, but was informed year later that he still owed money. Mourinho said he paid up and the case is now closed.  

The Portuguese manager also reportedly had to change his pre-match routine in order to attend the hearing.

Instead of holding his pre-match press conference on the Friday before the game as usual, he pushed it forward to yesterday (Thursday) and apparently informed Manchester United players their training schedule had changed due to the conflict.

The Spanish authorities announced the charges in June, claiming that Mourinho owes nearly €3.3million in revenue from undeclared image rights.

The amount allegedly built up between 2011 and 2012 while he was the manager of Real Madrid.

The manager’s representatives denied the allegation, claiming that Mourinho paid more than €25 million in tax in Spain from June 2010 to May 2013, at an average rate of more than 41 per cent.

The charges come after Spanish authorities cracked down on several leading footballers in Spain who had allegedly been dodging their taxes.

Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano have all been prosecuted for tax evasion while Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo continues to deny the charges.

Although Mourinho has been pulled away two days before the Red Devils are set to play Premier League champions Chelsea on Sunday, he stressed that it has been business as usual.

“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.”

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