Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was treated to a surprise visit abroad his rented yacht when Spanish customs agents boarded the boat in what tax authorities said yesterday was merely a “routine check.”
The 32-year-old Portuguese star is holidaying in the Balearic Islands along with his girlfriend Georgina Rodriguez and family, according to Spain’s Hola celebrity magazine, which first reported the story. 
The magazine published photos of three uniformed customs agents arriving on a motorised rubber dinghy before boarding the grey yacht where an awning was pulled down over the main part of the boat as they went about their inspection.
News of the inspection, which took place on Tuesday, made waves — coming as it does just three weeks before Ronaldo appears before a judge, accused of evading 14.7mn euros ($16.8mn) in taxes. But a source at Spain’s tax agency, who refused to be named, said it was merely “a routine check of vessels.”
“We do this every summer in the Balearic Islands. It doesn’t affect those who use the boats, it’s related to charter companies’ registration taxes.”

Super-agent Mendes in Portuguese tax probe
Portuguese tax inspectors were examining the accounts of football super-agent Jorge Mendes yesterday, his company said, two weeks after he was charged in Spain with tax fraud. The 51-year-old Mendes represents Cristiano Ronaldo, Jose Mourinho, Radamel Falcao and a host of other top earning stars, many of whom are being investigated in Spain over allegations they hid earnings from image rights in off-shore accounts.
A spokesman for Mendes’s firm Gestifute said, adding the company had already been subject to a series of similar inspections that had passed off without incident.
The investigation in Portugal concerns the past three years and is focusing on whether Mendes had created shell companies for his clients, a charge which he recently denied in a Spanish court investigating alleged tax evasion by Monaco striker Radamel Falcao.

Dutch probing threat against women’s Euro 
Dutch counterterrorism officials said yesterday that they were investigating a reported threat by so-called Islamic State jihadists against the UEFA Women’s Euro 2017 football championships. The Islamic group has called on “lone wolves to attack Stadion Galgenwaard in Utrecht” yesterday, July 19, the day of the England versus Scotland match, according to the specialist jihadist monitoring website SITE.
The women’s European football championships kick off on Sunday and last three weeks, with the finals set for August 6 in the Dutch town of Enschede. The SITE Intelligence Group said it had detected the message, which included two photos of the stadium, a seating plan and a route map, on a pro-IS Telegram channel. In recent weeks, SITE also uncovered IS messages calling for attacks to coincide with July 4, America’s Independence Day, and with the start of the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London.

Bastia relegation appeal rejected
Bastia failed in their appeal against their demotion to the French third division yesterday, having been relegated a second time on financial grounds after finishing bottom of Ligue 1. “The club is going to immediately appeal this decision to the CNOSF (French Olympic Committee),” Bastia said in a brief statement on the club’s website.
Bastia were condemned to the third tier by French football’s financial watchdog on June 22 and had pledged to offload players to balance the club’s accounts before the next hearing. But Bastia failed to overturn the ruling, unlike Corsican rivals Ajaccio who will remain in Ligue 2 after successfully appealing against their relegation for similar financial problems.