LIONEL MESSI’S older brother has been ordered to teach football classes in his native city after being caught with a gun in his car.
Matias Messi was accused of illegal possession of a weapon after police discovered an unlicensed .22 pistol in his Audi A5 during a stop last October.
Judge Gonzalo Lopez Quintana instructed him to impart four hours of soccer classes each week for a year at a football club in the Argentine city of Rosario as part of a probation order
The 34-year-old will have to lead technical and physical sessions.
He was also told to stay off drugs and drink and pay a fine of around £400.
Local reports at the time of his arrest said Matias refused to identify himself to officers when he was stopped on October 3 last year in Rosario.
Two officers were reportedly left slightly injured and Barcelona star Messi’s sibling suffered a cut to an eyebrow during a struggle.
He was held at a police station for several hours before being allowed to return home.
It was not the first time he had a run-in with the police.
In October 2008 he was arrested for allegedly having a loaded gun in his belt.
In April 2011 he survived an assassination attempt.
He dived for cover as a gunman on a motorbike sprayed bullets at his house.
Police found four 9mm handgun rounds lodged in the building.
Leo, 29, and his father Jorge were handed a 21-month jail sentence for tax evasion at the start of July.
A Spanish court found the Messis had evaded £3.19 million on the footballer’s image rights from 2007 to 2009.
Lawyers for the star announced after the sentence they would appeal, even neither man is expected to serve any prison time because in Spain jail sentences of less than two years for first-time offenders are normally suspended.
