Convicted rapist and former Brazil international Dani Alves will spend another night in jail after failing to raise the one-million-euro bail set by a Barcelona court to ensure his release pending appeal.

Wednesday’s surprise decision by the court caught prosecutors off guard as the footballer had routinely been refused bail since his arrest in January 2023 on grounds he was a high flight risk. 

One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was convicted last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.

His lawyers swiftly appealed the conviction, and on Tuesday they requested he be let out on bail on grounds he had already served a quarter of his four-and-a-half-year sentence in pre-trial detention.

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