Spain’s Supreme Court has upheld a 21-month suspended prison sentence for Argentina and Barcelona star Lionel Messi in his appeal over three counts of tax fraud.

However, the player’s father, Jorge Messi who managers his finances, has seen his sentence reduced from 21 to 15 months for his cooperation in returning some of the defrauded money.

Neither is likely to serve any jail time, given that under Spanish law a tax prison sentence under two years can be served under probation.

Messi and his father were first sentenced on July 6 last year but launched an appeal, with prosecutors eventually asking the Spanish Supreme Court to review the sentences.

Prosecutors in last year’s case judged that Messi and his father had used tax havens in Belize and Uruguay as well as shell companies in the United Kingdom and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes totalling €4.1 million on earnings from image rights between 2007 and 2009.

The five-time world player of the year was also ordered to pay a fine of around €2 million euros at the time, while his father was fined €1.5 million.

Messi in his defence said he had signed many documents when he was younger without reading their contents and had visited a notary’s office to set up a company to handle his finances without understanding what was going on.