Read also: Ronaldo likely to face 15months Jail term for Tax Fraud

Lionel Messi

The Argentine Lionel Messi has avoided imprisonment over tax fraud by Spanish prosecutors after agreeing to pay an increased fine.

The Barcelona Superstar was charged to court last year, July 2016 alongside with his father for defrauding after hiding earnings from image rights in an offshore account.

Messi was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment but the Spanish law allows one to serve his/her punishment on probation as long as the sentence was under two years.

Spanish prosecutors would swap jail time for a fine of 255 thousand euros ($285,116) which equals 400 euros per day,although the court has the final decision over whether to go ahead with this option.

The daily fine will not exempt Messi from paying the 2.09-million-euro fine levied on him, when he and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were found guilty of tax fraud in a trial last year and sentenced to 21 months in jail.

Both appealed, but Spain’s Supreme Court last month confirmed the jail term for the Barcelona striker, although it reduced Messi’s father’s sentence to 15 months.

Father and son used companies in Belize, Britain, Switzerland and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros of Messi’s income earned from his image rights from 2007-09.

The income related to Messi’s image rights that was hidden includes endorsement deals with Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company.

Messi is not the only football star to run into problems with Spain’s courts, as Real Madrid star striker Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho have recently been targeted by Spanish prosecutors summoning them to appear before a judge investigating tax fraud.

Read: Mourinho denies tax fraud allegation during time at Real Madrid

Ronaldo is due to be questioned on July 31 on suspicion of evading 14.7 million euros in taxes.

Read also: Ronaldo likely to face 15months Jail term for Tax Fraud