Lionel Messi and his father have been given a 21-month jail sentence by the Spanish court for not paying taxes. But both of them are unlikely to spend any time in prison because under Spanish law, a jail sentence of less than 2 years can be served under probation if there haven’t been any criminal charges against the accused in the past.
The court also ordered Messi to pay a fine of 2 million Euros and his father to pay a fine of 1.5 million Euros. The prosecutors claimed that Messi and his father used tax havens in Belize, Uruguay and shell companies in the U.K. and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. Messi and his father are believed to have paid almost 15 million Euros since the news first broke out.
Lionel Messi had also accepted in court that he signed various documents without reading its contents.
The Spanish court also mentioned that the decision can be appealed through the Spanish Supreme Court.
FC Barcelona also gave a statement in support of Messi as follows:
“FC Barcelona gives all its support to Leo Messi and his father with relation to the sentence for tax evasion handed out by the Provincial Court in Barcelona today, 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. FC Barcelona continues to be at the disposal of Leo Messi and his family to support him in whatever action he decides to take in defense of his honesty and his legal interests.”
All we can do is hope that this doesn’t affect the star forward’s game.
