A Barcelona court has found Argentine and Barcelona football star Lionel Messi, and his father Jorge Messi guilty on three counts of tax fraud.
The court rulings come after the prosecution had argued that both Messi and his father, Jorge used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay as well as shell companies in the UK and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes that totalled €4.1m.
The court sentenced the pair to 21 months in prison, although neither is likely to serve out any of their sentence.
In Spanish law, a tax prison sentence under two years can be served under probation which means that Messi and his father are unlikely to see in the inside of a cell.
Messi has also been ordered by the court to pay a fine of 2 million euro, while his father Jorge was ordered to pay €1.5m.
Barcelona FC subsequently issued a statement in support of their star player. “The club, in agreement with the Government prosecution service, considers that the player, who has corrected his position with the Spanish Tax Office, is in no way criminally responsible with regards to the facts underlined in this case.”
Messi’s legal representatives argued that his client had no knowledge of his tax affairs. The sentence also reflects the fact that he had no previous criminal convictions and that he had paid back the money owed.
Forbes has ranked Messi as the second highest paid athlete in the world, banking an estimated $81.4 million through his salary and other endorsement deals.