⚖️ Lionel Messi convicted of tax fraud: 21 months, €1.7M fine

The ruling is in. A Barcelona court found Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Messi, guilty of three counts of tax fraud and handed each a 21-month sentence, Sports Illustrated reported on 6 July 2016, citing the Associated Press.

Here is the scoreboard. The court found the Messis evaded more than €4 million in tax on the player's image rights between 2007 and 2009, per the same report. Messi was ordered to pay a €1.7M fine and Jorge €1.3M, according to The Guardian, as cited by Sports Illustrated.

Why nobody is going to jail

Spain suspends sentences of under two years for first-time offenders, Sports Illustrated explained. That means neither Messi nor his father will serve time. The same report says Messi was free to attend Barcelona's first day of preseason training the following week.

How the money moved

Authorities alleged that income from Messi's image rights was routed through companies in countries such as Uruguay, Switzerland and Belize to lower his tax burden in Spain, ESPN FC reported from the trial. One of those vehicles, an image-rights company called Jenbril, was formed in Uruguay in 2007, according to the same report.

At trial, ESPN FC reported, prosecutors said the charges covered €4.1 million ($4.5 million) in defrauded tax from 2007-09. They also said that although Messi was mostly unfamiliar with tax matters, there was enough evidence to believe he could have known about and consented to the structure.

The defence: I just played football

Messi took the stand for less than 15 minutes, ESPN FC reported, and said he never suspected wrongdoing when his father asked him to sign documents. His line to the judge was short and on the record:

"I signed the contracts because I trusted my dad and the lawyers and we had decided that they would take charge of those things."

Lionel Messi, testifying in Barcelona, as reported by ESPN FC

Jorge Messi backed that account in his own testimony. His version of the paperwork policy, per ESPN FC:

"I didn't think it was necessary to inform him of everything"

Jorge Messi, testifying in Barcelona, as reported by ESPN FC

Witnesses called by the defence said Messi signed documents but that his father was responsible for his businesses off the field, ESPN FC reported. An expert called by the defence said some signatures on Messi's contracts appeared to be falsified. The court still convicted both men.

The club and the appeal

FC Barcelona issued a statement of support after the ruling. It stressed one point about the prosecution, which sits awkwardly beside the trial coverage above:

"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 statement, as published by Sports Illustrated

Sports Illustrated reports that Messi is also appealing the ruling, and embeds a press release in English confirming he will go to the Supreme Court. The documents read do not say how that appeal ended.

One more line for the file: ESPN FC noted that Messi's name also appeared in the probe of offshore accounts sparked by the Panama Papers leak, but he has not been charged in relation to that. Spain's tax system has been tough on footballers, as ESPN FC put it, with Javier Mascherano handed a suspended one-year sentence earlier in 2016. MrMuscles notes that Messi's final score in this one is a conviction, a suspended term and two fines.