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Barcelona star Lionel Messi will be prosecuted by a Spanish court for allegedly evading tax on income from image rights, according to The Guardian.
Messi and his father were accused of evading tax of up to €4m (£3.1m) by filing false returns between 2006 and 2009, a revelation that stunned the football world.
The case will go ahead even though the public prosecutor recommended that the charges be dismissed. His argument was on the grounds that it was Messi’s father Jorge who was in charge of the player’s finances and not the Argentine forward.
But the court was unmoved and took a stance saying that Lionel Messi could have known about the shell companies used to evade tax and may have even approved them.
The judge decided to rule in favour of the case against Jorge and Lionel Messi to be continued.
Messi is the world’s fourth highest paid athlete according to Forbes, behind boxer Floyd Mayweather, Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and basketball star LeBron James.
