Spanish Tax Authorities Scrutinizing Lionel Messi's Foundation, El Mundo Reports

Spanish tax authorities are "investigating whether payments" from Barcelona to Lionel Messi's foundation "were used to help the player evade taxes," Spanish daily El Mundo reported on Saturday, according to the AFP. The newspaper, which acquired Football Leaks documents, reported the club gave the foundation at least €12.7M between '10 and '16. The paper claimed the payments from Barça represented 71.5% of the foundation's revenue between '13 and '16. El Mundo said that the club had urged Messi, already being investigated for a €4.1M tax fraud relating to his image rights, to "regularize the donations to his foundation." In the image rights case, Messi and his father, Jorge, were found guilty in '16 (AFP, 1/14).