Alexis Sanchez situation continues unsettling trend at Barcelona

Arsenal may need to locate a court-date replacement for Alexis Sanchez if recent charges against him in Spain prove to be true.

Alexis has been charged with transferring his image rights to a company in Malta so he would not have to pay taxes on that income. A report in The Sun describes the situation that Alexis is currently facing. Prosecutors in Spain contend that

“The Chilean is said to have hidden the existence of Numidia, which he owned a 99% stake in, to avoid paying €587,677 (£530,834) in 2012 and €395,766 (£357,485) in 2013. He also failed to make any tax declarations on dividends received by Numidia.”

Alexis is charged with transferring his image rights to Numidia, a company that he owned 99% of, so that he could avoid paying taxes in 2011 and 2012. Prosecutors are concerned that Alexis did this intentionally, since he supposedly gave these up in 2008 when he transferred “his image rights to the Chilean company Inversiones Alsan.” He claimed he still possessed these rights when he signed his deal with Barcelona in 2011.

This situation allegedly occurred in 2011 as Alexis signed his contract with Barcelona. Alexis is the fifth Barcelona player that we know of - a list that also includes Messi, Mascherano, Adriano and Samuel Eto’o - to be investigated for charges relating to taxes fraud or evasion. None of these players faces have actually served time in prison and hopefully Alexis will receive a similar punishment. Spanish law allows punishments for tax-related charges under two years to be served on probation. Since these cases are so different from one another, we will unfortunately have to wait and see what punishment Alexis receives.

This news (here are a few more details from AS, which is not the best source, but still) comes at a challenging point in the season for Alexis and Arsenal. Arsenal is currently unbeaten in fifteen matches in this campaign and Alexis’ recent form has been a vital component of that recent success. Arsenal will need Alexis to perform well if they want to continue their success in all competitions and break their historically form during the month of November.

Hopefully Alexis will be able to resolve this situation quickly and he will be able to continue playing well for Arsenal.