Guardiola's name appears in Pandora papers offshore assets case

Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola appears among a list of some of the world's most affluent and powerful people whose assets and financial dealings have been exposed in leaked offshore data known as the Pandora papers.  According to Spanish daily, El País, the former Barcelona player and coach did not declare the income he earned during the two seasons he spent as a played at Al-Ahli in Qatar to Spanish tax authorities when he returned to take up the Barça coaching post. Other celebrities who feature in the list include Shakira, Gerard Piqué's partner.

El País add that Guardiola also held a current bank account in Andorra until 2012. It was in that account where he deposited the wages he earned in the Qatar Stars League. It is alleged that he chose that moment to close his account to take advantage of the temporary fiscal amnesty introduced at the start of that year by then Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, which allowed tax evaders to regularize their situation by paying 10% on any hidden income with no questions asked.

When Guardiola took advantage of the tax amnesty, El País reports, he regularized €500,000, paying a levy of 10% on the interest which those funds had generated over the previous four years, the maximum number of years for tax inspections in Spain.

Guardiola's links to company listed in Panama

Elsewhere in their investigations, El País reveal that the Manchester City manager's name also  appears as a representative for a phantom, offshore company listed in Panama, called Repox Investments - through a document from law firm Alcogal (Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee).

The existence of the company,  El País add, was not related in any way to FC Barcelona or any business interests which Guardiola may have had in Panama. It was set up solely to hide the identity of the account holder at Banca Privada d’Andorra (BPA) where Guardiola's wages were paid into .