Internet Desk : Barcelona defender Javier Mascherano has been sentenced to one year in prison. The player has been fined 815,000 euros after two tax offences
Mascherano was last September charged with evading taxes totalling more than €1.5million.
He also admitted to a judge in October 2015 that failed to declare his earnings from 2011 and 2012 at a hearing.
The earnings he failed to declare were from images rights he ceded to compaines which he owns in Portugal and the United States.
After that the former Liverpool midfielder repaid the full €1.5million debt owed to the tax authorities.
The 31-year-old at a court hearing today, Thursday, January 21 which last just 10 minutes was given four-month and eight-month sentences for the two offences.
After the verdict, Mascherano released a statement when he insisted that he was an honest and responsible person.
“I am a professional athlete, I have no great knowledge of tax and legal issues. Therefore, I’m helped by people that handles these issues, which for me are complex,” he said in an open letter.
“Throughout my career I was an honest and responsible person, respecting my colleagues, the clubs I represent and the countries in which I lived.
“This situation I’m going through is another experience, from which I will come out stronger, and very calm as I am once again within the law.
“I reserve the possibility of action against those who advised me badly by recommending me something which was not right.”
The football star is however unlikely to spend anytime in jail.
In Spain, people with less than two years jail sentences are allowed to pay a huge fine to avoid going to prison as long as it is not a violent crime.
His lawyer David Aineto has requested the prison sentence to be substituted for a fine.
Mascherano is the latest in the line of Barcelona players who have fallen out with the tax authorities in Spain.
Lionel Messi and Neymar are currently in legal battles with authorities in Spain over tax issues.