Tax fraud: Alexis Sanchez’s agent blasts Spanish authorities

Alexis Sanchez’s agent, Felice Felicevich, has said that the punishment handed to his client is “unfair” and blasted the Spanish authorities for violating player’s rights.

Sanchez has been handed a 16-month suspended prison term after being sentenced for tax fraud .

Last month Sanchez admitted defrauding Spanish tax authorities of £900,000 from image rights during his time at Barcelona.

He has now been fined £525,000 and will also re-pay the money to the authorities.

As it is his first offence in Spain however, he won’t serve any jail time if he does not commit a crime in the next two years.

Felicevich is however not happy that the details of the case were made public.

“Today the Spanish Tax Agency has once again leaked details of an agreement between our representative Alexis Sanchez and Spanish prosecutors.

“Spanish prosecutors and its Treasury Department have placed more than 30 professional footballers in the same situation, accusing them of the same crimes and threatening them with prison sentences.

“Almost every member of the Real Madrid and Barcelona squad have been placed in this situation, even though these clubs use a standard pay formula for their first team which has been accepted by the Spanish Treasury in the past.

“Throughout all these cases, whilst violating the rights of those under investigation, the repeated, continuous and obscene leaks have been an element of pressure on the players to force them to accept agreements like the one today, which once again has been leaked to the media.

“On some occasions, there has been no other way out but to surrender to the pressure, and to avoid worst injustices, accept unfair agreements like this one.

“Many players and managers have had to do the same thing, and many others will continue to do so,” he said in a statement.