Barcelona's Javier Mascherano sentenced to 12 months in jail over tax fraud, will not serve jail term

Mascherano paid a total of €815,000 as fine

A Spanish court has condemned Javier Mascherano to 12 months of jail term after he was charged in the tax fraud case. However, the Barcelona defender has avoided serving the sentence after a deal with the authorities was finalized.

The Argentine admitted to the tax fraud charges which were leveled against him back in October and pleaded guilty for the same. In addition to the 12-month jail term punishment, he was instructed to pay €815,000 as fine.

The 31-year-old was charged with two counts of tax frauds – €600,000 in 2011 and over €968,000 the following year. The amount he evaded was the tax he should have paid for the payments he received from Nike for image rights. However, he sold the rights to companies in the United States and Portugal and dodged the tax.

The ex-Liverpool player though paid the total amount of €1.5m which was due gradually over the past three years and also €200,000 in interest.

Spanish courts generally do not ask the accused to serve the sentence if the case is non-violent and the jail-time needed to be served is less than two years. Mascherano avoided the jail term under the aforementioned circumstances as his case was non-violent and the sentencing was a 12-months jail term. However, he will have to face the jail term if he repeats the same mistakes again in the next 12 months.

The court will officially reveal the details of the deal on an unconfirmed date, but reportedly there are no legal ramifications under which the defender can not be allowed to walk away from the sentence as he has already paid the amount-plus-interest and the fine handed to him as well.

Mascherano completes 250 appearances for Barcelona

The Argentine recently played his 250th match for the Blaugrana, however, his performance in the match was not as good as he would have hoped. The defending champions played against Valencia at the Mestalla in the La Liga yesterday and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Mascherano picked up a yellow card quite early in the game and was unable to stop Paco Alcacer as the Spaniard controlled an aerial ball perfectly and played the ball in Sant Mina’s path who scored the equaliser in the 86th Â?Â?minute. Both the Barcelona central defenders (Mascherano and Pique) were marking Alcacer but were unable to stop him from making the deciding pass as Los Che earned a point from the match.