Argentina international footballer, Javier Mascherano has been sentenced to a year in prison and fined €815,000 (£625,000) for two tax offences. However, the star is not likely to be spending a year behind bars, as his lawyer, David Aineto has requested the prison sentence to be substituted for a fine because in Spain, people handed sentences of less than two years are not normally required to serve their sentence, unless they are being punished for violent crime.
The 31-year old was given 4-month and 8-month sentences for the two offences which took place in 2011 and 2012. He had already repaid the full €1.6million (£1.15million) debt owed to the tax authorities before he was given his punishment.
He also paid the interest on the money, but has still been hit with a new fine. His tax offences were for failing to declare earnings from image rights he ceded to companies which he owns in Portugal and the United States.
Mascherano published an open letter after the verdict in which he insisted 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.
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.'
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