体坛英语新闻：Spain' s Supreme Court confirms Messi fraud sentence: judicial source

MADRID, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Spain's Supreme Court has confirmed on Wednesday Lionel Messi's fraud sentence upholding the 21-month jail term for the FC Barcelona player and a two-million euro fine, judicial sources reported.

Messi's appeal against the sentence was thrown out by the Spanish court although the sentence is expected to be suspended, as according to Spanish law, those without criminal record and a sentence of under two years do not serve time in jail.

Messi's father, Jorge Horario Messi, had his punishment reduced to 15 months jail as Messi had paid back the defrauded money to tax authorities.

Jorge along with his son had been both found guilty of tax fraud in July 2016 on three counts of tax fraud between 2007 and 2009. They were accused of using companies in Britain, Switzerland, Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros of Messi's income earned from contracts related to the player image rights.

The football player has always insisted that he knew nothing about how his money was managed and trusted his father and those chosen to manage his financial issues.

"The truth is that I knew nothing," he said, "as my father explained, I was devoted to playing football. I trusted my father, I trusted the lawyers he had chosen to run things."