Messi, who last month resigned from the Argentine national team after losing the final of the Copa America to Chile on a penalty shoot-out, had in court alleged that he was not aware of the tax evasion because he only played soccer and left it to his father to manage his finances.
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They were also fined a total of 3.7 million euros (4.1 million United States dollars).
Messi’s lawyers said he had never examined contracts between 2007 and 2009 which dealt with income from image rights with companies including Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Danone, Procter and Gamble, Banco Sabadell and the Kuwait Food Company.
“His father said in front of the judge that he was responsible for all of the tax decisions of his son, and literally Lionel Messi said: ‘I trust my Dad, I don’t know what I sign'”.
In 2005, he signed his first Barcelona contract, which would keep him as a Barcelona player till 2010, and the contract had a buy-out clause of 150 million euros (that is a insane amount for a teenager in 2005). Mascherano, 31, avoided serving any jail time though due to the sentence falling below the two-year threshold, and he also agreed to pay an €800,000 fine as well as covering the legal costs.
Lionel Messi will have to pay 2 million euros and his father, Jorge Messi will pay 1.5 million euros.
The court said if the player was not punished, “ordinary” citizens could conclude that it was better to “not show interest” in their tax obligations.
This verdict by the Spanish court is a result of the long controversy surrounding Lionel Messi who, along with his father Jorge Messi, has been accused of defrauding Spain of a huge sum of money.
But after the general attorney had indicated that a sentence for Messi’s father alone would be suffice, Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Balague admitted he was surprised Messi was not absolved.
The ruling can also be appealed, according to a court statement.
The 32-year-old, who was also given a fine of €816,000, had repaid the €1.6m owed to tax authorities prior to his sentencing.
Hundreds of fans took to the rainy streets of Buenos Aires pleading Lionel Messi to reverse his decision to retire from global football.
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Neither of the two are likely to serve any time in prison as the sentence was less than two years for a non-violent offence and neither holds a criminal record. Well, despite a sentence constituting almost two years of jail time, neither man will be spending any time behind bars as a result of the Lionel Messi tax case.
