Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo, who was accused by the Spanish Authorities of evading tax of 14.7m euros may have to miss the opportunity of playing for his team in a friendly match against arch-rivals Barcelona as he has been summoned to court on July 31.
The investigation, which is part of the tax affairs process, is said to hold in Pozuelo just 30 hours after the scheduled friendly match.
Ronaldo is said to have hired a law firm Baker Mackenzie to defend his 20% percent declaration to the Spanish taxman as correct or at least not a deliberate attempt, since a high proportion of his image rights earnings are from outside Spain.
The Madrid judge will decide after a court hearing from both parties and if the Public Prosecution lawsuit is accepted, Ronaldo will be informed to accept culpability within 30 days and pay a fine of about 35m euros or proceed to court, Daily mail reports.
Amid the claims, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has defended the player saying:
I know him and he’s a top professional and person and all this is very strange. We have complete faith that Cristiano has always acted out of good faith because we know what he is like.
The question of Ronaldo using tactics to get the club to pay for a possible fine makes no sense because he is not like that. If he is upset, it’s not about that.
I have not spoken to him since Cardiff. He has a contract with us so he’s a Madrid player.
Something has definitely affected him. We will find out what has happened, but right now he is playing in a very important tournament and I’m not about to disturb that.
