Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The disappointment of football fans in Hong Kong is still not over after Lionel Messi did not play in the friendly match between Inter Miami and Hong Kong XI on Sunday (4/2/2024) yesterday.
It is known that the player from Argentina disappointed football fans in Hong Kong because he only sat on the bench during the match at the Hong Kong Stadium. In fact, all the promotions for the friendly match seemed to promise that Messi would play on the gridiron.
During the match, the spectators in the stands shouted scorn for Messi who did not take to the field until the referee's long whistle sounded. Apart from that, the viewers also demanded compensation.
This time, fans flooded Inter Miami's official social media with harsh criticism. In their criticism, Hong Kong netizens were united in calling the club from the United States (US) a fraud.
“Fraud team. Tickets are too expensive to watch your B team's match,” wrote one netizen X (formerly Twitter), quoted on Tuesday (6/2/2924).
“Inter Miami is the biggest football fraud to fool fans into paying crazy prices for tickets to see Messi, but not even play him,” commented another netizen.
Not only that, football fans in Hong Kong also criticized Inter Miami for displaying La Pulga's face in all promotions for the Inter Miami vs Hong Kong XI match.
Netizens also did not hesitate to call the owners of the Inter Miami club “disgusting” and asked them to never set foot on Hong Kong soil again.
“Stop using Messi's name to sell tickets and lying to fans that he will play. That's detrimental to Leo himself. Enough is enough, it's been done many times,” criticized netizen X.
“Messi and Beckham have many supporters in Hong Kong and mainland China, but not anymore,” stressed user X from Hong Kong.
Reporting from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), sharp criticism of Leo Messi's new club emerged amidst the upload of Inter Miami who would stop by Japan for a pre-season tour.
Based on the schedule, Inter Miami will face the J1 League (Japanese League) champion club, Vissel Kobe at the Japanese National Stadium, Tokyo, Wednesday (7/2/2024) tomorrow.
Ahead of the match, a number of people predicted that Messi would not play in Japan for the sake of “fairness”. However, there are also those who think that Messi will play the match in Tokyo so that there are no “additional victims”.
Hong Kong Government Disappointed
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Photo: Inter Miami's Lionel Messi waves to fans during celebrations at DRV PNK Stadium, Sunday, July 16, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (AP/Rebecca Blackwell)
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Meanwhile, the Hong Kong government, which provided a grant of more than US$ 2 million or around Rp. 31.46 billion (assuming an exchange rate of Rp. 15,736/US$) to the match organizers, admitted that it was “very disappointed” because Messi did not play.
In fact, the Hong Kong government has repeatedly requested that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner play in the match. However, the request was not answered.
Hong Kong Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kevin Yeung, said that the contract signed by the government and match organizer Tatler XFEST required Messi to play at least 45 minutes. In the agreement, there is a note to pay attention to the star's safety and fitness issues.
According to Yeung, organizers had already informed the government that Messi might not be able to play due to injury, but they only confirmed that Messi would not play 10 minutes before the match started.
Messi Once 'Pranked' Fans in Indonesia
The events experienced by fans in Hong Kong have little in common with the 'incident' in Indonesia. In June 2023, the Argentine National Team (Timnas) came to Indonesia to play FIFA Matchday against the Indonesian National Team.
At that time, all tickets were sold out and many Indonesian football fans hoped to see Lionel Messi and the best national team in the world. However, Messi canceled coming to Jakarta because he had to rest and decided to go on holiday.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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