Lionel Messi, who is on trial for alleged tax fraud in Spain, has "told a court he had no involvement in the management of his financial affairs," according to the BBC. He said, "I was playing football, I knew nothing." Messi and his father Jorge, who manages his finances, are "accused of defrauding Spain" of €4.1M ($4.6M). Wearing a dark suit and tie, Messi sat alongside his father in front of the judge and "listened to other testimony for nearly four hours before being called to testify in the third day of the trial." Messi, 28, said that "he signed documents without reading them because he trusted his father and the advisers responsible for managing his finances." Lionel Messi: "I only worried about playing football." Speaking for less than 15 minutes, he said that "he never suspected any wrongdoing when his father would ask him to sign contracts or documents." Jorge Messi "also denies the charges" (BBC, 6/2). In London, Ed Malyon reported both Lionel and his father "declined to take questions from the state prosecutors but gave testimony in the court in Barcelona." Lionel said, "I left it all to my dad. I only knew that sponsors would pay X amount of money, that I had to do adverts, photos and things like that." Tax authorities are "asking that both serve nearly two years in jail for the offence, but the public prosecutor is only pursuing Messi Sr." Jorge earlier claimed that he did not realize the Belize company that managed image rights deals did not "pay taxes in Spain, and that he never informed his son of the details of sponsorship deals." He said, "Since the start of Leo's career I only tried to make his life easier. Leo knew nothing of these companies. He didn't read the contracts" (DAILY MIRROR, 6/2).
