Lionel Messi makes offer to pay additional fine to avoid jail sentence

Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi has offered to pay an additional fine of €500,000 to ensure he avoids a 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud that a judge is expected to suspend, a Spanish state prosecutor said.

The fine-for-time deal was presented by Messi's lawyers to the judge who will rule on whether to suspend his sentence - as is widely expected - state prosecutor Isabel Lopez Riera said.