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| Real Madrid Star Cristiano Ronaldo | |
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says that tax fraud allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo could potentially affect the club and added that he hopes the controversy over the investigation is resolved soon.
A group of European media outlets have reported that Ronaldo routed at least €150 million in income through a British Virgin Islands tax haven since 2009, and that the Spanish tax authorities have been investigating his case for 12 months already.
Madrid have backed the Portugal captain by saying that his “conduct has been absolutely exemplary throughout all of his time at our club,” while Ronaldo’s agents Gestifute have also strongly denied any wrongdoing and on Thursday released financial records which show he earned €227.3m in 2015 but do not appear to pertain directly to the years under investigation by the authorities.
The documents released by “Football Leaks” allegedly show that Ronaldo’s representatives constructed a complex network of companies in different countries to minimise the amount of tax he paid.
Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have not been included in Real Madrid’s squad for Saturday’s Spanish league match against Deportivo La Coruna. Madrid will be missing all three of their first-choice forwards, with Gareth Bale recovering from a foot injury.
Asked at a news conference ahead of Saturday evening’s La Liga game at home to Deportivo La Coruna if top footballers would usually have no knowledge of their own finances, Los Blancos’ coach replied that his players were clever and responsible for what was done in their name.
“We are talking about people, not just footballers, but people, who are very intelligent,” Zidane said. “They know perfectly well what they do, what they have done, and what they must do.
“I hope that it is all clarified quickly and we want to just think about football and winning games. All this can affect us. I do not want to make comments out of turn. I hope that things are sorted out very quickly. We can only wait on that.
Madrid have backed the Portugal captain by saying that his “conduct has been absolutely exemplary throughout all of his time at our club,” while Ronaldo’s agents Gestifute have also strongly denied any wrongdoing and on Thursday released financial records which show he earned €227.3m in 2015 but do not appear to pertain directly to the years under investigation by the authorities.
The documents released by “Football Leaks” allegedly show that Ronaldo’s representatives constructed a complex network of companies in different countries to minimise the amount of tax he paid.
Ronaldo and Karim Benzema have not been included in Real Madrid’s squad for Saturday’s Spanish league match against Deportivo La Coruna. Madrid will be missing all three of their first-choice forwards, with Gareth Bale recovering from a foot injury.
Asked at a news conference ahead of Saturday evening’s La Liga game at home to Deportivo La Coruna if top footballers would usually have no knowledge of their own finances, Los Blancos’ coach replied that his players were clever and responsible for what was done in their name.
“We are talking about people, not just footballers, but people, who are very intelligent,” Zidane said. “They know perfectly well what they do, what they have done, and what they must do.
“I hope that it is all clarified quickly and we want to just think about football and winning games. All this can affect us. I do not want to make comments out of turn. I hope that things are sorted out very quickly. We can only wait on that.
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