Diego Costa could face up to six 6 months in jail on the accusation of tax fraud, his hearing is set to be conducted on June 4.
Former Chelsea star Diego Costa has recently been included into the list of football stars accused of tax fraud. According to a report by the Cadena Ser, The Spanish striker has allegedly defrauded the Spanish state of over 1 million euros for not declaring payments regarding his move from Spain to Chelsea in 2014 and for image rights.
The report further states that the prosecution wants Costa to serve six months in jail and pay a fine of 507,208 euros. But with the earlier cases with other footballers on tax fraud, Costa is unlikely to spend any time in the cell.
The laws in Spain allow sentences under two years for non-violent crimes to be exchanged for a fine and Costa will only have to pay 36,500 euros, on top of his over half a million fine, to avoid time in prison.
Lionel Messi and his father cum agent Jorge Messi were found guilty of defrauding Spain in 2017, and the Barcelona star was initially given a 21-month sentence.
The six-time Ballon d’Or winner eventually had to pay a €252,000 fine and speaking recently he admitted the situation nearly caused him to quit Barca. “At that time, with the mess of the treasury, I wanted to leave, not for wanting to leave Barca but wanting to leave Spain,” the Argentina star said.
“I felt that I was being very mistreated and I didn’t want to stay here. I never had an official offer because everyone knew my idea to stay here.”
Meanwhile, in 2019, eve Cristiano Ronaldo was on the receiving end of a fine for allegedly defrauding Spain. Even the Portuguese International had to pay a fine to avoid spending 23 months in jail.
