Reports are emerging from Spain that Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez is under the threat of going to prison for unpaid taxes.
The Chilean has been in stupendous form so far this season in an Gunners shirt, but is now under investigation for supposed undeclared earnings, which should have been taxed, during his time at Barcelona previously.
During a three year period, the forward is claimed to have left out €983,443 of earnings from image rights during his time with the Catalan giants, and is being threatened with prison should he be found guilty.
The most high-profile case of its kind was aimed at Barca’s four-time Ballon D’Or winner Lionel Messi, but even he was only given a sentence of only 21 months, which in Spain will always be suspended, and no time will be spent. This will most likely be the same for our star should he be convicted.
Losing our striker would be horrific to our chances of challenging for honours this season, given his new role as a centre-forward has propelled us up the Premier League table to sit tied for the lead.
He also gives us a completely different option to that of Olivier Giroud, who is more of a physical presence than Alexis.
Our club will most likely release a statement on the subject in the near future, which will likely explain how they will be standing by their player, and will not obstruct the legal proceedings.
Do you think Sanchez could be sentenced to prison? Does this change any thoughts on the 27 year-old?
Pat J
First this could just be the media/press creating something from nothing
I’m not concerned about Alexis going to prison
Rich footballers pay money to accountants and the accountants either are good and find legal ways to pay as little tax as possible or are bad and do illegal things
Messi had tax problems but didn’t do any jail time. Neither will Alexis
Just concerned about Alexis’s mind being focused
Alexis should just focus on playing and let the lawyers/accountants deal with that stuff if there is any problem
SPUDS next
If an example was going to be made of anyone, it would have been Messi. If the message was going to be “Even the biggest stars are not untouchable”, they had the world’s biggest star there to punish, and did essentially nothing (and his tax bill was allegedly €4 million).
Based on this, Im not worried at all.
Sanchez will be fine. Messi had a much larger bill, and he’s still playing, and scoring plenty. Also, one needs to remember that famous rich people can worm their way out of situations that your average Joe cannot, even when breaking the law or murdering someone, as we saw with OJ. Money can get you the best defence, so I am not worried.
OT: Cannot wait for Sunday, time to peel the spuds!
… Peel the spuds, Skin the chickens!!! (or whatever form of poultry they’ve got going on their crest)
Mascherano is also purportedly going to do some jail time for the very same thing…
If you ever think you had a rough month in
October, just remember that Manchester United
scored only one premier league goal in October. And their fans still have to vote for their “October goal of the month”.
I don’t care what the tax issue is, resolve it ASAP we cnt afford to lose Alexis.
he is not just among our irreplaceable players (Koscielny,Cazorla,Alexis,Ozil,Bellerin) he is the most irreplaceable of them.
Alexis upfront determines our potency in attack and is the striker we need ‘starting’ if we wanna have any chance at the title..
Now that England isn’t in the European union there isn’t too much they can do. Unless when we travel for a CL game in Spain they nab him, Alexis they will never catch though because he’s just too damn tricky, speedy gonzales wouldn’t get near him.
What a dumb argument. Alexis is Chilean which is not in EU at all. UK on the other hand will be in EU at least two year after the famous Article 50 will be invoked. Which didn’t happened as of yet.
Are you for real, what at all about a speedy gonzales remark would make you believe I was serious. Of course he’s not gonna run from it, I was kidding, it’s not like anyone would believe he’d dodge it and then get chased around Spain when visiting, only a dummy would take that serious.
Your argument was based on EU membership. Should you let only your last phrase I wouldn’t even bothered to answer. I could cringe a smile though.
Avoiding Tax is disgraceful, especially when you’re already earning so much more than Fireman, or Nurses, Police, social workers, Builders or any other decent professional. ……………However, I love Arsenal, and unfortunetly, as much as my logic protests, I would defend arsenal and our players possibly even in the face of murder…….yes possibly. its wrong but love is so.
i think the problem is with Barca’s administration Messi,Mascherano,Neymar have all been implicated with this tax issue.
It is not the same thing. I am pretty sure Barcelona files for taxes as any HR department in the world do for income taxes. These amounts are related in all cases to actions outside Barcelona reach. Of course Barcelona they are no saints but in these cases we are talking about image rights or signing fees.