Former Brazil and Barcelona player Dani Alves has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison by a Spanish court for sexual assault.
The 40-year-old former right-back was found guilty of assaulting a woman in the bathroom of an upscale Barcelona nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2022 and has been in custody since being arrested for the offence in January 2023.
Alves, who must also pay his victim 150,000 euros (£128,000) in compensation and their court costs, has the right to appeal against his sentence.
Dani Alves sits during his trial in Barcelona (Alberto Estevez/AP)
A statement from the Audiencia de Barcelona on Thursday read: “The Court of Barcelona has condemned footballer Dani Alves to four years and six months in prison for sexual assault.
“The victim must also receive 150,000 euros and have their legal costs paid.
“The sentence takes into consideration that it has been proven the victim did not consent and that there is evidence in addition to their testimony that proves the offence.”
Former Brazil and Barcelona defender Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison (Mike Egerton/PA)
During the trial, which ended on February 7, Alves denied any wrongdoing and claimed the encounter was consensual. He can appeal to the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia but must remain in custody following Thursday’s verdict, the court said.
It was determined by the court that alcohol intoxication had no legal relevance in regards to the “cognitive faculties of the accused” when defence lawyers for Alves offered his state of drunkenness at the nightclub in mitigation.
Alves made over 400 appearances for Barcelona – with whom he won the Champions League three times across two spells – before moving on to Juventus, Paris St Germain and Sao Paulo. He earned 126 caps for Brazil and featured in three World Cup squads.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here