The Spanish anti-corruption prosecutor’s office has recommended a 12-year prison sentence for Watford’s owner, Gino Pozzo, after he was accused of implementing “a long-term criminal plan” while in charge of the Spanish club Granada to evade paying more than €9m in tax on transfers.
Pozzo – who took over Watford with his father, Giampaolo, in 2012 and became sole owner in 2014 – has been under investigation for several years in Spain over alleged tax fraud related to his spell as Granada’s owner between 2009 and 2015. A ruling by the judge Santiago Pedraz last April, first reported by El Periódico de España, recommended that Pozzo and the former Granada president Enrique Pina should stand trial despite his shelving the case in September 2022 after finding no evidence of money laundering.
