Argentina’s upcoming friendly in China has been canceled by native authorities amid controversy over star Lionel Messi’s absence from a Hong Kong match final Sunday. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Argentina’s upcoming friendly in China has been canceled by native authorities, the second Argentine match in China to be referred to as off this week amid controversy over star Lionel Messi’s absence from a Hong Kong match final Sunday.
Beijing’s soccer affiliation introduced Saturday it won’t manage a friendly scheduled for March between Argentina and the Ivory Coast.
“Beijing does not plan, for the moment, to organise the match in which Lionel Messi was to participate,” the Beijing Football Association mentioned Saturday in an announcement to native media.
The cancellation comes a day after a friendly between Argentina and Nigeria, additionally deliberate for March, was nixed by the Hangzhou Sports Bureau.
During an extended 2024 preseason street journey with Inter Miami that included stops in El Salvador and Saudi Arabia, Messi missed final Sunday’s match in Hong Kong due to an damage. The crew confronted an offended backlash from followers, a few of whom demanded refunds for his or her tickets as a result of the Argentinian didn’t play.
Making issues worse, the coach of Inter Miami, Gerardo Martino, had mentioned his 36-year-old star “likely” would play in Hong Kong.
A big promoting marketing campaign was constructed across the match, whose organizer is now mentioned to be withdrawing $2 million in authorities grants for the occasion.
“The (Hong Kong) government, as well as football fans, are extremely disappointed that Messi could neither play in the friendly match, nor explain to the fans in person upon request,” Hong Kong officers mentioned in an announcement final Sunday.
“The way that the organizer and Inter Miami handled the situation could not meet the expectations of the fans who showed strong support to Messi, especially those visitors who came all the way here for the match.”
Hong Kong sports activities, tradition and tourism secretary Kevin Yeung mentioned the deal required Messi to play a minimum of 45 minutes.
On Friday, Tatler Asia, the organizer of Sunday’s Inter Miami recreation in Hong Kong — which had already issued two apologies — introduced it can concern a 50 p.c refund to ticket holders. The refund will reportedly quantity to $7.2 million.
On Wednesday in Tokyo, Messi performed half-hour in Inter Miami’s 4-3 penalty shootout loss to J-League champion Vissel Kobe. While his look thrilled Tokyo spectators, it additional roiled Hong Kong.
“The coach … announced in Hong Kong on February 4 that Messi could not play due to injury, but three days later, Messi acted freely and played in Japan, and did a lot of intense sports on the football field,” Hong Kong’s sports activities bureau wrote to Reuters. “Hong Kong citizens have lots of questions.”
Inter Miami will play a Feb. 15 preseason match in opposition to Newell’s Old Boys, Messi’s boyhood membership in Argentina. The membership will open the MLS season at dwelling on Feb. 21 in opposition to Real Salt Lake.
