Atletico Madrid striker Costa fined, handed six-month prison sentence for tax fraud

Costa accepted charges of avoiding a tax payment of over a million euros, linked to his transfer to Chelsea in 2014 and also to tax related to image rights.

Madrid: Atletico Madrid forward Diego Costa has been fined 543,208 euros (around $610,000) and given a six-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud.

The striker, however, will not have to go to prison because under Spanish law, non-violent first time offenders who are sentenced to less than two years in jail are able to avoid time behind bars by paying a further financial penalty.

Costa on Thursday accepted charges of avoiding a tax payment of over a million euros, linked to his transfer to Chelsea in 2014 and also to tax related to image rights.

File image of Diego Costa

He joins a long list of players from Spain's La Liga who have been fined for tax evasion, with Leo Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Iker Casillas among those who have previously appeared in court for similar offences.

Meanwhile, La Liga is all set to return on 11th June, almost three months after it was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-March.

The season will resume with a local derby between Sevilla and Real Betis and there will be fixtures for the following seven days, with Barcelona hosting Leganes on June 16 and Real Madrid playing at home to Valencia on June 18.

• ⏳ Let the countdown begin! ⌛️
  
  RT 🔁 if you're excited for the return of #LaLigaSantander on June 11th.#BackToWin

  — LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) May 31, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  ⏳ Let the countdown begin! ⌛️
  
  RT 🔁 if you're excited for the return of #LaLigaSantander on June 11th.#BackToWin

  — LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) May 31, 2020

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  ⏳ Let the countdown begin! ⌛️
  
  RT 🔁 if you're excited for the return of #LaLigaSantander on June 11th.#BackToWin

  — LaLiga English (@LaLigaEN) May 31, 2020

All matches will be played behind closed doors, with Real playing their remaining six home games at the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano, a venue used mostly by the club's B team at the Ciudad Real Madrid centre on the city's outskirts.

Madrid is not stopping renovation work at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium as all remaining league games are likely to be played without fans because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Javier Tebas, head of La Liga, has said there will be matches played every day in Spain until the season is completed on July 19. However, the organisers have so far released dates for only the first two rounds of fixtures.