Argentina and Barcelona football star Lionel Messi and his father are due to appear in a Spanish court to face three charges of tax fraud relating to the sale of image rights of the footballer, who has been named World Player of the Year four times.

Messi and his father, Jorge, are accused of evading €4.2m (£3.4m) in tax on earnings made from endorsements from sponsors by setting up shell companies in Uruguay and Belize to avoid paying tax in Spain.

Both men deny the charges, saying the deals were done by Messi's former agent without their knowledge. The alleged crimes took place between 2007 and 2009.

The striker and his father are expected to be questioned in a closed-court session in Gava, the affluent Barcelona district where the footballer lives. In August, the two men made a payment of €5m (£4.1m) to the tax authorities, representing the alleged unpaid tax plus interest.

However, the tax authorities are still pursuing the case as the Spanish government has announced a crackdown on tax evasion during the country's financial crisis.

Messi is said to earn around €16m (£13m) from the Barcelona club each year, plus his multi-million pound endorsements with sponsors including , Adidas, PepsiCo, Danone, the Kuwait Food Company and Proctor & Gamble. In recent years it has become common for leading footballers to set up image rights companies in low-tax countries, through which they are paid their additional sponsorship salaries.

Denying the charges, together with his father, Messi said: 'We have always fulfilled our tax obligations following the advice of our tax consultants who will take care of clarifying this situation.'