idk about what the consequences will be , but the fact that it happens to Barca players so often is no coincidence . As far back as 1972 , Barcelona was paying players part of their wages as compensation ' for their image rights ' because income from image rights is taxed at a lower rate and also makes their actual wages seem lower , and allows them to net more money . The first player to have gotten a deal like this was Lazlo Kubala according to Sid Lowe ' s book . Recently , Mascherano , Messi , Neymar , Eto ' o , Adriano the LB and others have been involved in fraud cases . Its even more complicated for the South Americans or non EU dual citizens bc they have also been claiming that the image rights income was earned and taxed in BrazilSA and on that basis have been trying to avoid ANY tax on the image rights in Spain . Example Neymar basically claims his image was built in brazil , so any income from his image was ' earned ' in brazil so he shouldn ' t have to pay any taxes on it in Spain .