Football
Reuters 17y

UPDATE 2-Soccer-Hiddink avoids jail, fined for tax fraud

(Adds comment from the court, Russia, detail)

By Svebor Kranjc

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands, Feb 27 - A Dutch court
handed former PSV Eindhoven coach Guus Hiddink a six-month
suspended sentence and fined him 45,000 euros ($59,270) on
Tuesday after finding him guilty of tax fraud.

Hiddink, now in charge of the Russian national team, was
accused of evading almost 1.4 million euros in Dutch taxes by
falsely claiming to be a resident of Belgium in 2002 and 2003.

The court cleared him of tax evasion during 2002, saying the
Dutchman may well have intended to go and live in Belgium, but
found him guilty for the period of 2003, when he had actually
lived with his partner in Amsterdam, and imposed the maximum
fine.

"The court reached the conclusion that Hiddink deliberately
submitted an incomplete and incorrect tax declaration over
2003," it said in a statement.

Earlier this month prosecutors demanded a 10-month prison
sentence for Hiddink, who was not in court to hear the verdict,
dismissing his claims that he had been living in Belgium, where
the tax rate is much lower, as "a joke".

"Hiddink is glad that the punishment is lower. But
nevertheless his image has been damaged," his lawyer told Dutch
news agency ANP.

In explaining its sentence and why it had not sent him to
prison the court said: "The court considered that there already
has been a lot of negative publicity around Hiddink."

From 2000 to 2002 the 60-year-old Dutchman was in charge of
the South Korean national side, guiding the World Cup co-hosts
to fourth place at the 2002 finals. He then returned to the
Netherlands and accepted a coaching job with PSV Eindhoven.

RUSSIA CONCERNED

After the 2006 Soccer World Cup in Germany Hiddink then
became coach of Russia's national team.

A spokesman for the Russian football union said they would
consult legal experts on the consequences of the ruling.

"Our main concern is what the suspended sentence means as
far as Dutch law is concerned. Would it prevent Hiddink from
doing his work or prevent him from travelling, that is what we
are concerned about," he said.

Hiddink's case came to the attention of Dutch tax fraud
inspectors after telephone conversations with a former PSV
director were monitored by wire taps in a criminal investigation
into the PSV director some years ago.

During the trial Hiddink admitted that he never spent a
night in his house in Belgium but also denied that he lived with
his girlfriend in Amsterdam.

He said he had instead slept in a number of different places
-- in hotels, at his girlfriend's home, at the training ground
of PSV Eindhoven, and sometimes even in his car.

Hiddink's accountant, also on trial at the court, was also
convicted of fraud, for which he was fined 45,000 euros and
given an eight-month suspended sentence.

(Additional reporting by Gennady Fyodorov in Moscow)

^ Back to Top ^