Former Brazilian forward Robinho has been found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison for gang-raping a young woman in Italy in 2013.
The Court of Cassation in Rome rejected an appeal from the former Manchester City star and Ricardo Falco – his friend – relating to the incident.
Robinho, 37, was convicted of rape in 2017, as outlined by the Mirror, with a nine-year jail sentence handed down by the courts but his appeal process with the Italian courts has been ongoing in the years since.
The former player continually rejected claims that he took part in a gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman at the Sio Cafe nightclub in Milan in January 2013.
Meanwhile, the latest decision from the court in Rome is a final sentence with no room for further appeals with the sentence to begin immediately.
Robinho a player for Milan at the time of the incident, and was alleged to have engaged five other Brazilian men to gang rape the woman after plying her with alcohol in a discotheque in the Italian city.
The Brazilian spent four years at Spanish club Real Madrid between 2005 and 2009, where he netted a total of 35 goals in 137 outings before moving to Manchester City.