Lionel Messi has been sentenced to almost two years in prison for tax fraud – but looks set to escape jail time for the offence.

The greatest player of his – and arguably any – generation and his father were both handed 21-month sentences by a Catalan court over their failure to pay £3.4 million of tax on Messi’s image rights.

Under Spanish law, sentences of less than two years for first offences are usually suspended and neither the Barcelona star nor father Jorge are expected to serve time behind bars.

However, they were fined £1.7 million and £1.3m respectively by the court, having already paid a £4.2m “corrective payment” back in 2013 after filing incomplete tax returns for the years 2006 to 2009.