Lionel Messi and His Father Sentenced To 21 Months in Prison

Lionel Messi and His Father Sentenced To 21 Months in Jail

Lionel Messi and his father Jorge have been sentenced to 21 months in prison after a court in Barcelona found him guilty of three counts of tax fraud.

The sentence can be appealed through the Spanish supreme court, a statement from the court said.

It is unlikely Messi or his father will not serve a stretch behind bars, however. Under Spanish law, a prison sentence under two years can be served under probation if you have no prior criminal record.

The court ordered Messi to pay a fine of around 2 million euros (£1.7million) and his father to pay 1.5 million euros (£1.3million).

Messi and his father were both found guilty by a court in Barcelona of defrauding the Spanish tax authorities of €4.1million (£3.5m) in the period between 2007 and 2009 by not paying tax on image rights earnings.

Messi, whose father Jorge was a co-defendant and received the same sentence, was handed a term of under two years and thus, under Spanish law, is unlikely to have to go to prison unless he offends again.

He will, however, have to pay a fine of around €2.3million on top of the reparations already paid to authorities.

When giving evidence earlier this summer, Jorge Messi absolved his son of all blame, with the 28-year-old claiming he did not “read the documents, only sign them.”

It meant that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner had his signature on a raft of documents that channeled income from sponsorship deals through third parties in Belize and Uruguay.

Lionel Messi’s club-mate and former international colleague Javier Mascherano was similarly handed a jail sentence over a tax offence last year but did not ever set foot in a prison.