Lionel Messi and father given 21-month prison sentence

Soccer player Lionel Messi was sentenced to 21 months in jail for defrauding Spanish tax authorities. However, he will not be serving any jail time.

Instead FC Barcelona's forward will shell out a hefty payment of $2.3 million.

According to the ruling of Provincial Court in Barcelona, from 2007 to 2009 Messi was guilty of tax fraud.

Since he has never committed a crime and was sentenced to less than two years, he avoided serving jail time. Under the stipulation that he doesn’t break the law again.

It turns out to be a case of like father, like son as the 29-year-old soccer star's dad, Jorge Horacio Messi, received the same 21-month jail sentence for tax fraud and just like his son, with no criminal history he is only allocated to pay a fine of $1.7 million.

Messi's FC Barcelona club issued a statement saying that it gives“all its support to Leo Messi and his father.”