Lionel Messi sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax evasion charges amidst transfer speculations from Chelsea

A Spanish court found Lionel Messi and his father, who also doubles as his manager, guilty of tax evasion. According to the court charges, Lionel Messi failed to declare and pay taxes on income received as part of his image rights dating between 2005 and 2009. 

The conviction came on Wednesday as the court found that income from endorsements with Adidas, Procter & Gamble. Danone and a Kuwaiti Food Company paid to the soccer star were never declared by the accused persons to the revenue agency. The evasion, as revealed by the prosecution, was carried out through companies in Britain, Belize, Uruguay and Switzerland, and if paid could have been about 4.16 Million Euro. Thus sentencing him and his father to 21 months imprisonment over a period of three years respectively.

In addition to the 21 months prison term, the court imposed a fine of 2.09 Million Euros and 1.9 Million Euros respectively on Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi. 

In the course of the trial, Lionel Messi had claimed ignorance of the tax evasion practice, citing that he trusted his father that he only signs along the dotted lines on his father's direction. "I signed things, but I never looked at the contracts. I don't know what I signed," he told the court, maintaining that he never paid attention to how his wealth was being managed.

However, the court agreed with the prosecution that "there is no deliberate ignorance here, it's fraud and that's all there is to it, because he didn't want to pay his taxes." The court agreed, ruling that Lionel Messi had "decided to remain in ignorance ... despite all the opportunities available to the player to show interest in how his rights were managed, he did not."

It is expected that Messi and his father may not serve the term, although they intend to appeal the court's decision. Usually, most convictions of less than 3 years prison terms are suspended for first time offenders of non-violent crimes as was the case of Javier Mascherano who was sentenced to one year suspended term for similar tax evasion crime just six months ago.

Meanwhile, there are speculations that Lionel Messi may be the target of Roman Abromovich's Chelsea after the owner of Chelsea met with Messi's father and agent ten ago. As reported by the Sun, Messi;s father met with Abromovich at his superyatch, the Eclipse after Messi felt that Barcelona abandoned him during the tax evasion trial.