A Spanish judge ruled that Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi is to face trial on allegations of tax evasion. The judge rejected the prosecutor’s recommendation to drop the charges on the grounds that Lionel’s father was responsible for his finances.

Messi and his father, Jorge, are accused of defrauding authorities of more than 4m euros (£3.1m; $5m). Both father and son deny the wrongdoing and have five days to appeal it.

It is alleged that they withheld the money between 2007 and 2009. The income arose from Messi’s image rights, specifically contracts with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and the Kuwait Food Company.

The soccer star and his father are suspected of evading Spanish taxes by using shell companies in Belize and Uruguay to sell the rights to use Messi’s image. The judge ruled:

“In this type of crime, it is not necessary for someone to have complete knowledge of all the accounting and business operations nor the exact quantity, rather it is sufficient to be aware of the designs to commit fraud and consent to them.”

In August 2013 Messi and his father made a 5m euro “corrective payment,” equal to the alleged unpaid tax plus interest.

Messi, captain of Argentina, has been a four-time Fifa World Player of the Year.

The court decision comes as Barcelona grapples with a separate prominent legal case. A Madrid court is hearing a lawsuit that accuses Barcelona of misappropriating funds from the transfer fee to buy Brazil striker Neymar from Santos in 2013. Club president Sandro Rosell resigned in January, but insisted he had “acted correctly” over the transfer.