The Argentine has already appeared in court to answer claims of alleged tax evasion to the tune of €4.1 million between 2006 and 2009 and has long declared his innocence. Nevertheless, the player and his father Jorge Messi paid just over €5m to authorities last year and it had looked as if the case would be closed. But the judge in Gava, a seaside town just outside Barcelona where Messi owns a property, has decided to proceed with the case against the four-time Ballon d’Or winner and his father....

Messi’s Barcelona contract does not expire until 2018 but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s future at Camp Nou is far from certain. Messi sets season-worst stat While team-mates Luis Suarez and Neymar have signed new deals, Messi is no closer to renewing with the LaLiga titleholders. And Kluivert added fuel to the fire after PSG routed Barcelona 4-0 in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday....

Major League Baseball announced Monday that the NL East rivals will play April 28-30 at San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium. The Marlins will be the home team for the series. “It is an honor for the Marlins to represent Major League Baseball in this special series against the Mets,” Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said in a release. “Miami serves as the gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America, and we are grateful for the chance to showcase the new Miami Marlins organization to our neighbors in Puerto Rico....

According to FanRag Sports, the Mets are interested in Tigers outfielder J.D. Martinez. The Tigers seem willing to offload some assets this offseason to rebuild their crumbling farm system, and Martinez, with one year left on his contract, could be headed out of Detroit. MORE: Ranking, tracking every MLB free agent on the market The report says the Mets hoped to complete a quicker deal with Cespedes this offseason than last year, which hasn’t happened....

This isn’t a surprise, of course. His two years in charge of the team that calls Citi Field home were tumultuous, at best. High highs and low lows, and more of the latter than the former, which is why he’s now the ex-Mets manager. MORE: Who will manage the Cubs next? Six possibilities So who’s next? Here are seven names you’re sure to see bandied about. We’ll add more as rumors arise....

Police in Fort Lee, N.J., responded to a call of a dispute at an apartment early Monday. Officers determined there was “probable cause to believe that domestic violence had occurred,” according to the complaint. Police said the alleged victim had a “scratch to the chest and bruise to the right cheek.” MORE: MLB shows it’s progressive, not irrational on domestic violence Familia was identified in the complaint as Jeurys F....

The Mets on Christmas Eve reportedly agreed to terms with free agent reliever Dellin Betances, the team announced on Tuesday. MORE: Five way-too-early predictions for 2020 season Betances switches the D-train for the 7-line, spending his entire career with the crosstown rival Yankees before signing with the Mets. In his career, Betances pitched to a 2.36 ERA almost exclusively out of the bullpen, making a single start in 2011, his first taste of major-league action....

The shoe will come in either black or white and features a detachable panda that World Peace will throw into the crowd before the game. According to Courtside Access, World Peace issued this statement: These are reminiscent of adidas’ Jeremy Scott collection, which has featured animals like bears and tigers for some time. Still, this is the first time we’ve seen a former NBAer actually dismantle his shoes and throw what amounts to prizes from that game at the state fair where you shoot water into a clown’s mouth into the crowd at games....

Neymar – a €222million arrival from Barcelona – missed Saturday’s goalless draw at Montpellier due to a foot injury as PSG’s 100 per cent start to the campaign ended. PSG 11/2 to win Champions League The 25-year-old has taken French football by storm, scoring four Ligue 1 goals and tallying as many assists since debuting last month, while he also netted in the Champions League. Meunier, however, said PSG are not reliant on Neymar, with head coach Unai Emery able to call upon Edinson Cavani, Kylian Mbappe and others....

AMLO, as the Mexican president is commonly called, successfully campaigned on promises to pacify country, end the drug war and offer amnesty for the swaths of the population in the illegal drug business. He encapsulated it all in the pithy slogan “abrazos no balazos”—“hugs not bullets.” A recent hack of the Mexican military, however, suggests the president’s partisans and others in the political class have shown more hugs for drug cartels....

LA Galaxy midfielder Jonathan dos Santos will not be part of the games and Tigres wingers Javier Aquino and Jurgen Damm will miss the Iceland contest and are in doubt to face Croatia. Chivas center back Oswaldo Alanis has been added to the team after not being included in the initial call. Dos Santos’ brother Giovani already had been excluded from the Mexico side because of an injury suffered in the Galaxy’s 2-1 loss to New York City FC on March 11....

Line 12 of the Mexico City Metro plunged onto a stream of cars near Olivos station below the overpass, which stood around five meters (around 16 feet) above the road in the southside borough of Tlahuac. Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that “a support beam gave way,” explaining it collapsed just as the train passed over it. Rescue efforts were briefly stalled at midnight as the partially hanging train was reported to be “very weak,” according to Sheinbaum, amid fears it could slip further into the road....

El Tri (3rd, 17 points) got its quest to qualify for Qatar 2022 back on track with a win in Jamaica on Thursday, but manager Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino says that “the win would serve nothing if we don’t win [Sunday vs. Costa Rica] and on Wednesday against Panama.” Martino’s men have to finish in the top three in the CONCACAF regional qualifying table to clinch a direct berth to the World Cup in November....

Heat shooting guard Ray Allen hosted a Super Bowl party for teammates, and as we have come to expect from the Heat, it was celebrated in style. Check out photos from the Heat setup at Allen's Miami home.

The 77-year-old billionaire is expected to file paperwork this week for the Democratic presidential primary in Alabama, and could make an announcement on it next week, The New York Times reported. If he does confirm his candidacy, it would be an about-turn for Bloomberg, who said in March he would not run for president. Back then, he believed Joe Biden was too strong a contender but Biden, 76, has faced questions over his verbal gaffes and is trailing the field in his fundraising efforts....

The 78-year-old billionaire was a lifelong liberal until he switched to the Republican Party in 2001 in order to get elected. Six years later, he abandoned the GOP and registered as an independent—although the switch didn’t seem to bother Republicans, as they supported his bid for a third mayoral term in 2009. Bloomberg remained an independent until 2018 when he became a Democrat in order to run for president....

The Toronto FC stars were on Bruce Arena’s 40-man preliminary roster for the tournament and were widely believed to be among the changes the U.S. would make to the playing squad after the group stage. Five thoughts from Mexico’s draw Each side in the Gold Cup is allowed to make six changes heading into the knockout rounds. The 29-year-old Bradley is the captain for both the U.S. national team and TFC, while Altidore has wracked up eight goals from 17 appearances for the MLS side this season....

The American midfielder responded to the recent war of words between U.S. men’s national team head coach Jurgen Klinsmann and MLS commissioner Don Garber on Friday, stating that his move to Toronto FC earlier this year was a choice that was best for his situation. “As a player it’s always the same. You want to be at a place where you’re valued as a player [and] as a person, in terms of what you bring to the table every day,” Bradley said of his big-money transfer to TFC, which earlier this week drew criticism from Klinsmann....

The targets announced Monday by the January 6 select committee include several advisors and allies of former President Donald Trump. Jason Miller, a senior advisor to Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign; Michael Flynn, the former president’s onetime national security adviser; Angela McCallum, a national executive assistant to Trump’s campaign; and William Stepien, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, have been called to testify. John Eastman, who reportedly advised Trump that state electors could be rejected, and Bernard Kerik, who reportedly participated in the January 5th, 2021 meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D....

Jordan pulled a season-long con on Pippen by correctly picking the winner of an animated bull race that was shown on video boards of Chicago home games. What Pippen didn’t know is that the races were “pre-recorded,” and that Jordan would find out ahead of time who would win the race. MORE: Classic photos of Jordan The story comes from ESPN’s Amin Elhassan, who told the story on an episode of “The Lowe Post”....