Messi loses appeal over 21-month sentence

Following the arrest of former Barcelona president Sandro Russel as part of a money laundering aspect of the investigation into corruption at FIFA, Lionel Messi has now had his 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud upheld.

The Spanish Supreme Court upheld hi sentence for three counts of tax fraud, although it is a suspended sentence and he won't actually have to serve any of it, assuming he doesn't or hasn't committed any more criminal acts.

His father, Jorge, saw his 21-month sentence reduced to 15 months in return for paying some of the money defrauded to authorities. Under Spanish law, a tax prison sentence of less than two years can be served under probation so his father won't serve any prison time either.

Argentinian Messi and his father had used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay plus shell companies in the UK and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. These totalled £3.55 million (€4.1m - AUS$6.14m - US$4.60m) on his earnings from image rights between 2007 and 2009.