La Liga
CASH-STRAPPED BARCA, DESPERATE TO OFFLOAD COUTINHO TO AVOID £17M PAYMENT TO LIVERPOOL
Barcelona are becoming increasingly desperate to offload Philippe Coutinho this summer with the playmaker edging closer to triggering £17million in payments to Liverpool by the club.
Coutinho joined Barca from the Reds in a deal worth £140m at the start of 2018 but has since struggled to live up to his transfer fee.
The figure was broken down in a series of installments with guaranteed fees set at £103m and appearance and success fees also added as part of 15 clauses Barca already has had to meet according to Mundo Deportivo.
The main clause of these is the £17m that would be paid to Liverpool if the 28-year-old reaches 100 games for the club.
He has currently played 90 times at the Nou Camp, but having made little impact the club are keen to avoid having to pay this clause especially amid the financial strain they are under following the coronavirus outbreak last year.
With Barca’s financial reports recently revealing that they still owe as much as £112m to 19 different teams in transfer fees, they will be hoping to trim needless costs where they can.
Other clauses that have already been met include £4m for playing 25 games, £9m for qualifying for the first two years of the Champions League and an additional £4m for winning the tournament – despite his winners’ medal coming from when he was on loan at Bayern Munich last term.
The report adds that Barca are now keen to get the Brazilian off their books this summer whether that is via a direct transfer or even a loan agreement.
Coutinho still has two years to run on his contract and has already been out on loan once having spent last season at Bayern Munich.
Although he has featured more in Ronald Koeman’s plans this term he has been out injured throughout 2021 with a knee injury that has seen him have to undergo surgery.
He had been expected to return to be able to compete in El Clasico next month against Real Madrid but his recovery has stalled and doubts of being available for the clash have significantly increased.
-Daily Mail
It was mission accomplished, said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti after his side fought back from two-goals behind to snatch a rip-roaring 4-4 draw on Tuesday for a 5-4 aggregate win that put them through to the Copa del Rey final.
Ancelotti brushed off questions about a sub-par performance by his side and praised his players’ effort in what he considered a highly entertaining encounter.
“We have achieved our goal today which was to reach the final and there is not much time to think about it,” Ancelotti told a press conference.
“It was an entertaining game with some mistakes and a lot of good things. It was fun and we are in the final.
“I never saw ourselves out of it because anything can happen at the Bernabeu. When we have to come from behind, we never give up. We never give up, especially at home, with the fans by our side.”
Ancelotti said David Alaba was not to blame after he deflected two balls into his own goal, calling it “bad luck” by the Austrian defender, but urged his defence to play with better focus moving forward.
“It’s not good to concede four goals in a game,” Ancelotti said.
“Right now we are a team that has a lot of effectiveness up-front, but little balance.
“However, we can’t ignore what we did in attack, scoring four goals against Real is not that easy. I think we are doing quite well.”
Real Madrid, who have won the Spanish Cup only once in over a decade, will play either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in a mouth-watering final in Seville next month.
Atletico fought back to hold Barca to a thrilling 4-4 draw ahead of Wednesday’s second-leg in Madrid.
-Reuters
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Real Madrid’s legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain’s tax office, the Madrid court which will hear the case has said.
Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of having cost Spain’s treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.
The trial will begin on Wednesday and it is expected to last two days, a spokesman for the court said.
Ancelotti, who as a coach has won a record five Champions League trophies including three with Real, must be present for the hearings, he added.
Prosecutors accuse him of only declaring in his tax returns the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid during those two years even though he himself declared himself to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated his home was in Madrid.
They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly setting up a “confusing” and “complex” system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings from his image rights as well as from other sources such as real estate.
A Spanish court in 2023 ordered Ancelotti to stand trial over the affair, but did not set a date.
Ancelotti dismissed the affair last year as “an old story that I hope will be resolved soon” when he was asked about the case.
He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, before being appointed at Bayern Munich the following year.
The former Italy international midfielder, who as a player won the European Cup twice with AC Milan, later managed Napoli and Everton before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.
Aside from his success in the Champions League he has won domestic league titles with Madrid and Milan, in England with Chelsea, in Germany with Bayern Munich and in France with Paris Saint-Germain.
-AFP
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Spain’s former soccer chief Luis Rubiales told Reuters on Thursday he would appeal a court ruling which found him guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.-
-Reuters
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