Barcelona superstar Messi sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined £1.7m over tax charges... but he won't go behind bars

A Spanish court found 29-year-old Argentina superstar Lionel Messi and his father Jorge guilty of three counts of tax fraud. In a statement, the court said their sentences can be appealed through the country's Supreme Court. However, under Spanish law a prison sentence under two years can be served under probation, meaning Messi and his father are unlikely to go to prison. The court ordered Messi to pay a fine of around 2 million euros (£1.7million) and his father to pay 1.5 million euros for the crimes.