Argentina, Barcelona and world’s best footballer, Lionel Messi, has been handed a 21 months prison sentence for tax fraud.
Messi’s father, Jorge Messi, also received a jail term for defrauding Spain of €4.1m (£3.5m; $4.5m) between 2007 and 2009.
The duo also faces millions of Euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.
Neither man is expected to serve time in jail.
Under the Spanish system, prison terms of less than two years can be served under probation.
Messi and his father were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud in Wednesday’s ruling by the court in Barcelona.
Messi was fined about €2m and his father €1.5m. They made a voluntary €5m “corrective payment”, equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in August 2013.
The sentence can still be appealed through the Spanish supreme court.
During the trial, Lionel Messi insisted he “knew nothing” about the management of his financial affairs, saying his father dealt with them while he was “playing football”.
For his part, Jorge Messi claimed he did not have enough knowledge to orchestrate such a fraud, blaming his tax consultants instead.
Lionel Messi, after seeing his country lose the COPA America trophy to Chile twice in a row, retired from international football late last month.
Messi won the FIFA World Player of the Year a record five times and is one of the richest athletes in the world.
