MADRID — 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 Wednesday. The pair had deposited 5,016,542.27 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, although their lawyer had asked for it to be postponed as he had another commitment that day, the statement added. The Argentine World Player of the Year and his father, who both denied wrongdoing, allegedly hid more than four million euros by filing incomplete returns for the years 2006 to 2009. — Reuters
