October 04, (THEWILL) – Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, is on a list of the world’s wealthiest whose assets and financial dealings have been revealed in the Pandora papers, a leak of offshore data.
According to El Pais, the former Barcelona player and coach did not submit the revenue he earned while playing for Al-Ahli in Qatar to Spanish tax authorities when he returned to take up the coaching position at Barcelona.
Guardiola had a current bank account in Andorra until 2012, according to El Pais. He deposited the salary he earned in the Qatar Stars League into that account.
He allegedly picked an auspicious time to terminate his account in order to take advantage of the temporary fiscal amnesty announced by then-Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy at the start of the year, which allowed tax evaders to rectify their status by paying 10% of any undeclared income with no questions asked.
Guardiola took advantage of the tax amnesty, he paid a fee of 10% on the interest that those funds had generated over the previous four years, the maximum number of years for tax inspections in Spain.
El Pais also revealed that the Manchester City manager’s name appears on a paper from legal firm Alcogal (Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee) as a representative for a phantom, offshore corporation called Repox Investments, which is registered in Panama.
El Pais claims the company’s establishment had nothing to do with FC Barcelona or any financial interests Guardiola may have had in Panama. It was created mainly to conceal the name of the account holder at Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA), who received Guardiola’s earnings.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
