Lionel Messi arrived at court today where he and his father are facing tax fraud charges.
The 26-year-old, four times the FIFA world player of the year, was summoned to Gava’s court No3 this morning, an hour before his father, Jorge Horacio.
A complaint lodged by a Spanish state prosecutor in June said Messi, Barcelona’s record scorer with 323 goals, and his father tried to conceal earnings from the player’s image rights.
The complaint alleged the Argentina international owed£3.4million in back taxes from 2007-09, having used companies in Belize and Uruguay to sell the rights to use his image. They both deny the allegations. Messi’s father made a payment of more than £4.2m on August 14 to cover alleged back taxes and interest.
Messi and his father were originally ordered to appear at the court near the player’s home outside of Barcelona on September 17 but the date was postponed.
