Arsenal news: Alexis Sanchez accused of tax fraud in Barcelona and could face jail sentence

Sanchez has been accused of 'actively withholding' £900,000 while be played for Barcelona between 2011 and 2014

Sanchez has been in contract talks with Arsenal since August (Getty)

Alexis Sanchez is the latest past or present Barcelona player to be accused of tax evasion after reports in Spain claimed that the public prosecutor has opened an investigation into the Arsenal player over allegedly “actively withholding” taxes.

The 27-year-old is accused of attempting to defraud the Inland Revenue of €983,443 [£888,736] during his time with Barcelona from 2011 until 2014, when he moved to England to join Arsenal.

Barcelona-based newspaper El Periodico claimed on Tuesday that Sanchez has been accused of “actively withholding” taxes in relation to his image rights, and could face a prison sentence if found guilty.

It’s alleged by prosecutor Miguel Angel Perez de Gregorio that Sanchez did not include the income from the transfer of his image rights in both 2012 and 2013 while in Barcelona, and he is also accused of “simulating the transfer of those rights” to an offshore company, based in Malta, called Numidia Trading.

The Chile international is alleged to have failed to declare €587,677 [currently worth £531,372] in 2012 and a further €395,766 [£357,817] a year later, and did not include details of the Maltese company in his tax declaration.

Sanchez is not the first Barcelona player to face an investigation into alleged tax evasion, with his former teammates Lionel Messi and Javier Mascherano all caught up in similar scandals.

Messi, along with his father Jorge Messi, was found guilty of defrauding Spanish tax authorities of €4.1m [£3.5m] earlier this year for payments made between 2007 and 2009. Messi was given a 21-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay €1.7m in fines in May this year, having already voluntarily paid arrears of €5.1m in August 2013.

Mascherano was also given a suspended jail sentence of one year, after he admitted two counts of tax fraud totalling over €1.5m in failing to declare his earnings between 2011 and 2012.

The revelations in Spain this week did not prevent Sanchez from playing for Arsenal in their Champions League victory over Ludogorets in Bulgaria, where a 3-2 victory sealed their place in the last-16 of the Champions League with two matches to spare.