--- title: Lionel Messi's Faces Trial Over Tax Fraud description: A Spanish court has ruled that claiming ignorance about his finances is no defense against charges of evading more than €4m in taxes canonical: https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/ author: Joanna Plucinska article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-11T09:37:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:06:53.810Z article:section: Sports og:title: Lionel Messi's Tax Fraud Appeal Fails Again og:description: The soccer star will likely have to stand trial og:url: https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c933c76d8f126f/69885410cd1bba2df46fbc2d/181991267.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FBL-ESP-SPAIN-MESSI-FRAUD-TRAIL og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lionel Messi's Tax Fraud Appeal Fails Again twitter:description: The soccer star will likely have to stand trial twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c933c76d8f126f/69885410cd1bba2df46fbc2d/181991267.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Soccer Star Lionel Messi's Faces Trial Over Tax Fraud > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jun 11, 2015 9:37 AM UTC  Barcelona football star Lionel Messi (R), his brother Rodrigo and lawyer Cristobal Martell (L) leave the courhouse in the coastal town of Gava near Barcelona on September 27, 2013 after an audience on tax evasion charges. Barcelona football star Lionel Messi (R), his brother Rodrigo and lawyer Cristobal Martell (L) leave the courhouse in the coastal town of Gava near Barcelona on September 27, 2013 after an audience on tax evasion charges.JOSEP LAGO—AFP/Getty Images by [Joanna Plucinska](https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/) ## Joanna Plucinska Jun 11, 2015 9:37 AM UTC Claiming ignorance doesn’t seem to be working for Lionel Messi this time around. After his newest appeal was rejected, it looks like the four-time World Player of the Year and Barcelona star will have to go to court in Spain to face tax evasion charges. According to the [BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33084879), Messi and his father, Jorge, are accused of withholding earnings between 2007 and 2009 by funneling income through companies in Belize and Uruguay responsible for selling the soccer star’s image rights. The contracts involved companies like Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola and Procter and Gamble. The case against them claims they’ve defrauded the government of over €4m. His previous appeal, thrown out by a [Spanish judge last October](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29479772), was based on the argument that Messi was not responsible for managing his finances. According to [El Pais](http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/06/10/inenglish/1433935729%5F245719.html), Messi’s defense team argued he “never devoted a minute of his life to reading, studying or analyzing” the contracts. Instead, his father was primarily responsible for the player’s books. A similar appeal was made this time around. But Spanish courts don’t think Messi’s professed ignorance is a good enough reason to drop the charges against him, the BBC reports. In August 2013, Messi and his father voluntarily made a €5m payment to cover the tax and interest. \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33084879)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/"},"headline":"Soccer Star Lionel Messi's Faces Trial Over Tax Fraud","datePublished":"2015-06-11T09:37:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:06:53.810Z","description":"A Spanish court has ruled that claiming ignorance about his finances is no defense against charges of evading more than €4m in taxes","url":"https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/","keywords":["Soccer","Sports topic","World Cup","Pepsi","Lionel Messi","Messi"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c933c76d8f126f/69885410cd1bba2df46fbc2d/181991267.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joanna Plucinska","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joanna-plucinska/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt25c933c76d8f126f/69885410cd1bba2df46fbc2d/181991267.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FBL-ESP-SPAIN-MESSI-FRAUD-TRAIL","caption":"FBL-ESP-SPAIN-MESSI-FRAUD-TRAIL","creditText":"JOSEP LAGO—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/soccer/","name":"Soccer"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3917394/lionel-messi-tax-fraud-appeal-barcelona/","name":"Soccer Star Lionel Messi's Faces Trial Over Tax Fraud"}}]}] ```