Javier Mascherano gets one year jail sentence over tax evasion

Barcelona player Javier Mascherano has been sentenced to one year in prison after a verdict on his tax evasion case was reached.

The Argentina international has also been fined an amount of €815,000 in addition to the jail sentence for two counts of financial crimes committed in 2011 and 2012.

The Barcelona player is however unlikely to serve the jail term. Mascherano previously admitted to the offences and paid the money he owed with huge fine as compensation.

Javier Mascherano released a statement on Thursday which read:

“I’m a professional sportsman and I don't know a lot about legal and financial matters.

“Therefore I must rely on the people that manage these technical, and for me, complicated, issues.

“All my career I have been an honest and responsible person... I will take this experience that has accosted me as another experience which I will leave stronger and calmed by the fact that I am once again within the law.”