Lionel Messi will not stand trial for tax fraud

Prosecutors in Barcelona have decided to drop the tax fraud case against Lionel Messi, instead focusing on the player's father.

Messi, who has been fighting the charges for the past two years, will no longer stand as the accused in court proceedings, as prosecutors don't believe he had knowledge of his financial affairs.

They are asking his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, to serve an 18-month prison sentence for evading more than €4 million in taxes between 2007 and 2009.

Jorge has served as his son's agent for the entirety of his career. He is alleged to have put in place a scheme using shell companies in South America to avoid the Spanish taxman.

Messi already paid €10 million to the authorities in 2013 to cover any lost income tax from his image rights.

Despite further appeals, the court proceeded with the case.

Messi would still appear as a witness, but his name has been cleared of wrongdoing.

"It has not (been) proven that (Messi's) lack of knowledge was deliberate or was done with the aim of defrauding the treasury," the prosecutors said in a statement, according to Spanish newspaper Sport.

Forbes magazine estimated that Messi's income in 2014 was €47.3 million.

He is one of three Barcelona players who have faced questions about financial irregularities, with defender Javier Mascherano and Neymar also implicated in separate cases.