Economist Luis Garicano was recently elected by the Ciudadanos to take over one of the vice presidencies of the Party of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and in an interview with 'El Espanol' he did not hesitate when it came to shifting the focus on to Leo Messi, despite the fact that the Argentine star has already been convicted of irregularities with the tax authorities.

“In the world of football we’ve found there is a huge fraud situation and [in Spain] we no-one ends up in prison,” said Garicano. “In the US, Messi would be in jail right now. In Spain it is practically impossible to end up in jail for a tax offence. In the end, having effective sanctions is very important for ensuring compliance with the law.”

However, Luis Garicano ignored in Cristiano Ronaldo in his response. The Real Madrid star, it was recently revealed by ‘Footbal Leaks’, diverted at least 150 million euros to a tax haven to hide revenue produced from his image rights. The newspaper 'El Mundo' revealed that the Portuguese player was being investigated by tax authorities for his tax declarations between 2011 and 2013.