Soccer

Messi and father pay off taxman

Barcelona forward Lionel Messi and his father Jorge have paid five million euros ($6.6 million) to the Spanish authorities after they were accused in June of filing false tax returns, a court statement said on Wednesday. The pair had deposited 5.02 million euros last month as a "corrective payment", the court in Gava near Barcelona said. They were still due to appear at a hearing on Sept 17, the statement said.