Messi offers to pay to avoid jail sentence

BARCELONA, Spain — Lionel Messi has offered to pay an additional fine of 500,000 euros ($558,000) to ensure he avoids a 21-month prison sentence for tax fraud that a judge is expected to suspend, a Spanish state prosecutor said Friday.

State prosecutor Isabel Lopez Riera told The Associated Press the fine-for-time deal was presented by Messi’s lawyers to the judge who will rule on whether to suspend Messi’s sentence — as is widely expected. Lopez Riera said she has told the judge that her office is not opposed to the deal. —Aric Van Halen, the 27-year-old son of Van Halen drummer Alex Van Halen, who chose sports over music and competed Friday night in the steeplechase at the U.S. track and field championships