The Italian arrived at the Provincial Court of Madrid on Wednesday morning for the opening of his trial on tax evasion charges. Charges are based on his first spell in charge of the Spanish giants between 2014 and 2015 as they claim he tried to avoid paying more than €1m (£833,000) in income tax.
Prosecutors allege Ancelotti declared only his personal earnings from Real and did not include his earnings from the sale of image rights. Claims suggest Ancelotti failed to pay a total of €1,062,079 in tax on those rights as prosecutors seek a prison term of four years nine months and a fine of 3.2m euros (£2.7m).
Ancelotti spoke in court about the ordeal and admitted that he never knew he was doing anything wrong until he was contacted.
“I’ve never been bothered about image rights,” Ancelotti said in court. “Coaches aren’t that important – it’s the players who sell shirts.
"I was only bothered about getting the six million net for three years and I never realised that something wasn’t right and I didn’t receive any notification that I was under investigation by tax prosecutors.
“I thought it was quite normal. I got in touch with my British adviser and I didn’t think any more about it because it all seemed right. I never thought a fraud could have been committed. But, given that I’m here, I guess things weren’t done that right.”
Ancelotti said on Friday that he had full faith in the right decision being reached following the two-day trial which could potentially harm the reputation of the iconic manager.
“I have total confidence in the law and in justice,” he said. “I’m not worried but I am obviously annoyed if they say that I’ve committed fraud, but, once again, I have total confidence in justice.”