Tax lawyers in Spain expressed surprise that Messi would be drawn into a criminal court. Rodrigo Garcia, a Spanish attorney who represents other soccer players, said that, normally, the revenue service begins with a civil inquiry and offers the accused an opportunity to settle.
Messi denied any wrongdoing in a June 12 post on his Facebook page.
“It’s something that we are surprised about because we have never committed any infraction,” he said. “We have always fulfilled our tax obligations following the advice of our tax consultants who will take care of clarifying this situation.”
Messi’s father, Jorge, placed the blame on Rodolfo Schinocca, a sports agent hired by the family in 2005.
Financial Adviser
“Lionel was 15 years at the time; he didn’t have anything to do with this,” the elder Messi said in a phone interview. “He is a footballer and that’s it. If there was an error, it was by our financial adviser. He created the company. My mistake was to have trusted the adviser. I’m going to take the blame for that. I had confidence in someone I shouldn’t have had.”
In an e-mail from Argentina, Schinocca said he had nothing to do with Messi’s taxes and was asked instead to help secure sponsorship deals. Schinocca said he hasn’t been contacted by prosecutors in the Messi case.
“I never employed this structure for any soccer player,” Schinocca wrote. “It wasn’t my job. I was a commercial partner.”
Soccer teams, like players, have an incentive to minimize taxes. They compete globally for talent in soccer by making salary offers based on net pay after taxes, so the less a player gives the government, the less the team has to compensate him. They also avoid payroll taxes by paying standouts and scrubs alike through what are known as image-rights companies.
Image Rights