Lionel Messi\u00a0has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for tax fraud by a Spanish court.<\/p>\n
Under Spanish law any sentence under two years can be suspended meaning the Barcelona and Argentina footballer\u00a0is expected to avoid serving time in prison.<\/p>\n
The 29-year-old, among the world\u2019s highest-earning athletes, was accused of\u00a0creating a string of fake companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid taxation on \u20ac4.16m (\u00a33.2m) of image rights earnings between 2007 and 2009.<\/p>\n
Messi, who took\u00a0time out from Argentina\u2019s preparations for the Copa America tournament this summer, said in court last month: \u201cI was playing football; I had no idea about anything. I trusted my dad and my lawyers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Argentinian\u2019s father Jorge Horacio Messi has also been handed the same punishment. The pair, who also face huge fines,\u00a0can appeal their sentences through the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Neither man is\u00a0expected to serve time in jail.<\/p>\n
During the trail,\u00a0Messi said he never suspected any wrongdoing when his father would ask him to sign contracts or documents relating to his image rights, a lucrative source of income for any athlete of his calibre.<\/p>\n
Witness Eva Blazquez, responsible for handling the four-time Champions League winner\u2019s tax declarations, said: \u201cLeo didn’t see them. The final supervision was done by the client, in this case, Jorge Messi.\u201d<\/p>\n
Messi’s father reiterated last month that his son didn’t know the details of his contracts. \u201cI didn’t think it was necessary to inform him of everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Independent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lionel Messi\u00a0has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for tax fraud by a Spanish court. Under Spanish law any sentence under two years can be suspended meaning the Barcelona and Argentina footballer\u00a0is expected to avoid serving time in prison. The 29-year-old, among the world\u2019s highest-earning athletes, was accused of\u00a0creating a string of fake companies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":225744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n