Be Excellent To Each Other

As you will have read, Lionel Messi and his dad have been found guilty of defrauding the Soanish tax authorities of over 4 million euros. He's been fined 2m euros and bee sentenced to 21 months in jail which he is not expected to serve any part of.

So, Barcelona have asked fans to support this poor, poor man by tweeting with the hashtag #weareallleomessi

Really? Because if every fan is so loaded with cash that they can owe Spain and its citizens 4m in unpaid taxes then I'd be surprised. I just can't imagine a British football club trying to ring around support for a tax dodging multi-millionaire because they've been caught. Am I missing something?

I did wonder if they deliberately kept his sentence to under the 24 month limit, which meant that he wouldn't have to actually go to prison. You get the feeling that he will never actually be viewed as a criminal somehow.

Mimi, good timing I was just reading about this ridiculous thing (the support campaign thing, not the actual fraud case which has been going on for some time), and was thinking of starting a thread on it.

Parts of Barcelona's statement are beyond parody:



I love the guy for what he has achieved and what he represents in football, but yeah, I'm finding it hard to have any respect for him now, knowing he's a greedy tax dodger (and clearly a massive liar, too).

I can only imagine what the hashtag will be if those blood bags ever get tested.

Ha!

I'm a little surprised too, but I guess Barca don't want to lose the Best Player in the World (tm), so morals, values etc go out the window? I reckon British clubs would do the same (I'm sure there have been instances of players doing quite bad things and being given second chances, or the having the problem swept away).

Note that I'm not saying I agree with either.

Being given as second chance or even trying to draw attention away from players' transgressions are one thing, but actively starting a campaign to support someone found guiltybofvnational fraud is a few steps forwards of that.

Liverpool did a similar campaign when Suarez was found guilty of being a racist.

And if he's bitten someone in the street the way he did on the pitch, he would have been arrested for assault.

Sharapova lost her sponsors with the doping scandal, but i doubt the same will happen to Messi even though what he did is way more serious, specially in a country with over 20% of unemployment that through a big recession. Greedy little fucker. Too bad he won't be behind bars.

Sunderland did a campaign when Adam... Oh wait.

Six years and a beating

BREAKING: Lionel Messi signs a new contract worth £580,000 per week...

...which after tax, means he'll be earning £585,000 per week.