Madrid: Barcelona star Lionel Messi should not be including in a fraud probe because he had nothing to do with his own tax affairs, the Argentine player's father and manager Jorge said Thursday. The player and his father were accused last year of not paying 4.16 million euros ($5.26m, 3.26m pounds) in tax on earnings from the player's image rights from 2007-2009 through the creation of a web of shell companies in Belize and Uruguay.


Lionel Messi 

Both Messi and his father denied wrongdoing when they were quizzed at a court in Gava, the Barcelona suburb where the player lives, in September 2013. They pointed the finger instead at a former agent of the 27-year-old player. "I want to be quite cautious over this," Jorge Messi said during an interview with radio Cadena Cope when he was asked about the affair.