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| Lionel Messi: Barcelona star appeals over tax fraud verdict | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Barcelona football star Lionel Messi will appeal against a Spanish court decision to sentence him to 21 months in jail for tax fraud, the player's lawyers say. | |
| Argentine Messi, aged 29, was sentenced to 21 months in jail and fined €2m euros (£1.7m; $2.2m). | |
| Messi's father, Jorge, was handed the same sentence with a €1.5m fine for defrauding Spain of €4.1m in 2007-09. | |
| However, neither man is expected to serve time in jail. | |
| Under the Spanish legal system, prison terms of under two years can be served under probation. | |
| The pair also face millions of euros in fines for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights. | |
| 'I knew nothing', Messi tells court | |
| Messi retires from international football | |
| Is Messi best of all time? | |
| How Messi reached his 500-goal milestone | |
| Quiz: How well do you know Messi? | |
| 'Corrective payment' | |
| "The sentence is not correct and we are confident the appeal will show the defence was right," Messi's lawyers said in a statement several hours after the guilty verdict was delivered by the court in Barcelona, Reuters reports. | |
| The lawyers added that Messi had always acted in good faith. | |
| The sentence can be appealed against via the Spanish supreme court. | |
| The footballer and his father were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud. | |
| As well as the jail terms, Messi and Jorge were also fined. They made a voluntary €5m "corrective payment", equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest, in August 2013. | |
| Lionel Messi's illustrious career: | |
| ...and major disappointments: | |
| Lionel Messi's career in photos | |
| Messi statue unveiled in Buenos Aires | |
| FC Barcelona's reaction | |
| "FC Barcelona expresses its full support to Leo Messi and his father in relation to the conviction for tax fraud... | |
| "The club... considers that the player, who has corrected his position with the Spanish tax office, is in no way criminally responsible with regards to the facts underlined in this case." | |
| Statement in full (in Spanish) |