Pep Guardiola is one of the names that has appeared in the Pandora Papers, a publication by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
According to La Sexta and El Pais, the Manchester City coach held a current account in Andorra until 2012, as he took advantage of a tax amnesty that had been introduced by Mariano Rajoy’s government to regularise his fiscal situation.
Until that point, Guardiola had not declared this current account to the Spanish Tax Agency.
A source close to Guardiola has stated that the account, which belongs to the Banca Privada d’Andorra, contains the salary from his spell with Al-Ahli, who he represented as a player between 2003 and 2005.
When he took advantage of the tax amnesty, he regularised around 500,000 euros, paying the 10 percent tax levy that had been stipulated by Cristobal Montoro, the minister of the Spanish Tax Agency.
According to the investigation, Guardiola appeared to run a register business in Panama, Repox Investments, between 2007 and 2012, which were the years he worked at Barcelona, first as coach of the B team and then the first team.
He used this business to ‘safeguard his identity’ in a measure on the initiative of the Andorran bank.
In 2015, following the strong criticism he received from the Spanish minister of the Interior, Jorge Fernandez Diaz, Guardiola made an eye-catching statement.
“I believe that the minister [Fernandez Diaz] is slightly wrong, I have paid my tasked from the first day until the last, something that many parties cannot say,” said Guardiola.
