Football: Dani Alves set to go on trial for rape in February, confirms Spanish Court

Former Brazil football star Dani Alves will go on trial in Spain for allegedly raping a woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022 between February 5-7, a Spanish court said Wednesday.

Prosecutors are seeking a nine-year jail term for the former Barcelona full-back, who has been in jail in Spain since his arrest in January, and demanded he pay his alleged victim 150,000 euros ($163,500) in compensation

The 40-year-old has maintained he had consensual sex with his accuser.

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• «I have a really clear conscience regarding what happened that night in the bathroom of the VIP area of the Sutton nightclub,» he told Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia in an interview published in June, his first since his arrest.

  «What happened and what didn't happen. And what didn't happen is that I forced this woman to do anything that we did,» he added.

  But when the story first broke — and before he was arrested — Alves in a television interview initially denied knowing the woman who filed a police complaint against him on January 2.

  «I was dancing and having a good time without invading anyone's space,» he told Spanish TV channel Antena 3

  «I don't know who this lady is. How could I do that to a woman? No.»

  Alves told La Vanguardia that he had lied at first because he was afraid his wife would leave him if he admitted he had been with another woman.

  The high-profile trial will take place in Barcelona, the court which has led the investigation into the affair said in a statement.

  Prosecutors allege Alves invited the woman to enter a small enclosure at the upscale Sutton nightclub, which she says she did not know was a lavatory.

  Once inside, the footballer showed a «violent attitude» towards the woman, who he forced to have