Barcelona star, Lionel Messi and his father Jorge are set to stand trial in Spain over an alleged £3.1m tax fraud which occurred some years ago.
Looking at the three charges against the Argentina and Barcelona star, one would conclude that he risks jail sentence, as they all carry potentials for prison sentence.
The 28-year-old Messi, could have thought the case against him would be dropped after he repaid £3.7million to Spanish authorities.
A judge in charge of the case, however, rejected a request by the public prosecutor to try only the footballer’s father.
Both Messi and his father are accused of cheating the taxman out of 4.16 million euros (around £3.1million) in taxes related to Messi’s image rights between 2007 and 2009.
Jorge is said to have funneled money into fake companies in Belize, Uruguay, Switzerland and the UK.
Messi and his father paid 5 million euros to the tax authorities as a “corrective payment” after they were formally charged in June 2013.
