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He may be have created history on the football field after winning a treble with Barcelona but off-field, Lionel Messi is facing trial over an alleged €4.1m (£3m = 30 Crore INR approximately) tax fraud. The football star’s lawyers appealed against his appearing in the court but it was turned down by a Barcelona court.
According to a report in El Pais, the court said that there was enough evidence that the Barcelona star has ‘benefitted’ from a network of companies that has helped him to skirt the laws of the Spanish Tax Agency. It was deemed as tax fraud on the footballer’s part even though he may not have been completely aware of it.
However, these allegations first surfaced back in 2007-09 when Messi and his father, Jorge — who is also his agent — were accused of evading tax obligations in Spain by using companies in Belize and Uruguay to sell the image rights of the player.
Messi, previously, have repeatedly stated that neither him or his father have ever committed any tax infringements and have always been upright with their tax payments.
The Argentine superstar’s salary in Barcelona is about €16m a year. He also earns from multi-million endorsements with commercial sponsors around the world.
Messi has been in sparkling form in the recent few months and have created panic in the opposition defences to lift Barcelona to a treble win and with the Copa America tournament in the horizon, he will be looking to do the same for Argentina.
Bayern Munich were nut-megged, Juvetus were left dazzled but a court battle with tax fraud charges might not be that easy to dodge, even for the best footballer in the planet!
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