Last month, Spain’s Supreme Court rejected Messi’s appeal against the jail term handed down last year after the Barcelona star and his father, Jorge, were found guilty of defrauding Spain of €4.1m between 2007 and 2009.
However, according to ESPN, Spanish prosecutors confirmed that they are not opposed to striking a deal, with the footballer being fined €400 per day – a total fine of around €255,500 – for the duration of the sentence.
Messi’s father, whose sentence was reduced to 15 months upon appeal, could also see the original punishment exchanged for a fine of around €180,000.
Under Spanish law, Messi is unlikely to spend any time behind bars as prison sentences of less than two years can be served under probation.
In addition to the prison sentences, he was fined around €2m and his father €1.5m for using tax havens in Belize and Uruguay to conceal earnings from image rights.
Both made a voluntary €5m “corrective payment” in August 2013, which was equal to the value of the unpaid tax plus interest.
Football and tax fraud
Messi is one of an ever-growing number of footballers to fall foul of Spanish tax authorities.
Earlier this month, soccer legends Christian Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho were accused of tax fraud by Spanish prosecutors.
Mourinho denied allegations that he defrauded Spain of €3.3m in taxes while he was Real Madrid coach from 2011 to 2012.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo is rumoured to be looking to leave Real Madrid over accusations he dodged €14.7m by using shell companies in the British Virgin Islands, Ireland, Columbia and Panama to hide earnings related to his image rights.
