We're about to dip into some a weird tax fraud conspiracy theory featuring soccer legend Lionel Messi and an unhappy Florentino Perez.

Some new light has been shed on the infamous tax evasion case involving Barcelona FC star Lionel Messi, and according to a report, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez might have had a hand in the instigation of the case.

The allegation goes that Perez used his influence to persuade the Spanish government to look into Messi's tax payments. This resulted in a full-blown investigation that led to one of the biggest scandals in all of football. This comes via world football insider Gianluca Di Marzio's latest book:

“Florentino, one of the most powerful men in Spain, did not appreciate it. It may have been a coincidence, but a few months later a long tax war broke out against the Argentine’s family and they were eventually forced to fork out 53 million Euros,” the book says.

Di Marzio also details how Florentino Perez approached Lionel Messi back in 2013 in the hopes of convincing him to make the move to Madrid. Perez was reportedly willing to pay a world record transfer fee in the range of 250 million Euros to trigger the Barcelona legend's release clause. Apparently, Messi did not oblige.

Not only did Messi decline the offer, but allegedly, Lionel Messi did not even bother meeting with the high-ranking Madrid executive. This was supposedly the reason why Perez was irked, which motivated him to launch an all-out revenge campaign against Messi.

To be clear, these are all unconfirmed rumors and is — for now — just a tax fraud conspiracy theory. It comes from quite a reliable source, though, and knowing the history between Real Madrid and Barcelona, this actually isn't too hard to believe.