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From left to right: Jordi Alba, Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets on the bench during Inter Miami’s match against Hong Kong.
Fred Lee/Getty Images
There is a David Beckham meme, taken from the recent Netflix beckham documentary, which is popular on social media right now. You know, you’ve seen it a thousand times or more, the one where Beckham harangues Victoria Beckham to “be honest” several times before she finally relents and tells the truth about her privileged upbringing.
After this weekend, fans, sponsors and the Hong Kong government will feel the meme needs an update, with David swapping roles with Victoria and the former English soccer star needing to “be honest” about the Inter Miami debacle , the team they co-own, found themselves with the last game of their preseason world tour.
On Sunday, Beckham’s Inter Miami took the field against a select Hong Kong team, and the MLS team will be quite happy with what happened on the field, a relatively easy 4-1 victory, without the need for the star player Lionel Messi plays a single minute. In fact, Messi remained on the bench for the entire match, dressed in casual clothes and sneakers, and didn’t even look like he would ever play. And therein lies the enormous problem and the root cause of a public relations disaster.
Nearly 40,000 Hong Kong fans, some of whom had spent between $112 and $570 for a ticket and many thousands more on resale sites, attended Sunday’s game and were overwhelmingly there to watch Messi play some role in the match. With time running out and Messi looking increasingly likely to miss out, boos and calls for a refund began to ring loudly in the Hong Kong stadium well before the final whistle. When Beckham, a man generally popular in Asia, took the field, the boos only intensified.
Inter Miami later revealed that Messi and teammate Luis Suarez, the team’s other superstar, were absent from the match due to injury, and that both players could not take any risks before the club’s MLS season begins on the 22nd. of February. This information was not revealed before kick-off and there was still confusion over when Messi was injured and why the information was not conveyed to home fans much earlier.
The situation will be familiar to MLS fans from last season., and many paid sky-high prices to see the Argentine star after he signed for Inter Miami, only for the player to miss a few games due to injury. However, the missing MLS games have been one of the few negative stories from Messi’s time in the US, and the player was warmly received by the American public thanks to the concerted push of the MLS, a documentary series from Apple TV+. Messi meets Americato and even Super Bowl ads. Apple is also streaming and providing wall-to-wall coverage of Inter Miami’s world tour.
Unfortunately, the absence in Hong Kong did not please Messi, and social media burned with fury, with some apoplectic fans destroying promotional materials featuring the player, and many more directing their anger at Beckham, Inter Miami and the event organizer. Tatler Asia.
The exhibition match was very important for Hong Kong. The visit of Messi, global icon, World Cup winner, eight-time Ballon d’Or winner and perhaps the greatest soccer player in history, captured the imagination of local fans, sponsors and even the Hong Kong government. which has been willing to support major events to show the world a more positive side of the city after its tourism industry took a hit due to its restrictive travel policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The South China Morning Newspaper reports that the Hong Kong government backed the game with $1.92 million in funding and an additional $128,000 subsidy to event organizer Tatler Asia. And the organizers spent no money promoting the match, starting their campaign months in advance, with Messi front and center in all materials. Tatler Asia even sold tickets to Inter Miami training sessions for hardcore Messi fans who wanted to catch a glimpse of his idol.
The week before the match, Messi’s face was everywhere in Hong Kong, on public transport, on social media and even on the famous LED billboards that adorn the city’s harbour. According to the SCMPThe contract for the game stipulated that Messi “would play a minimum of 45 minutes unless ill or injured.”
Hong Kong journalist Aaron Busch tweeted that on January 11., Tatler Asia published a statement reassuring fans about Messi’s game. “Tatler Asia would like to assure ticket holders and football fans in Hong Kong that ALL Inter Miami stars, including World Cup-winning Argentine captain Lionel Messi, will take part in the Tatler XFEST match in Hong Kong” , reads the statement.
Everyone involved seemed confident that Messi would play at least some role in the game.
But alarm bells should have been ringing on Saturday, the day Inter Miami arrived at Hong Kong International Airport, when the team refused to play and fully participate in the official welcome ceremony. Messi also made sporadic appearances in open training.
On Sunday, long after the game ended in a chorus of boos and acrimony, the political blame game began. He SCMP reports that the government was angry about the situation and that on the morning of the match they had been told that Messi would play. “As for Messi not playing the match today, the government, as well as all football fans, are very disappointed by the organizer’s agreement. “The organizer owes an explanation to all football fans,” the Hong Kong government said in a statement.
The statement added: “The Major Sports Events Committee will follow up with the organizer in accordance with the terms of the agreement, including the possibility of deducting sponsorship funds because Messi did not play.”
Co-owner David Beckham of Inter Miami CF reacts during the preseason friendly match between the Hong Kong team and Inter Miami.
Fred Lee/Getty Images
Faced with the anger of the fans, Tatler Asia also issued a statement on Sunday., sharing his “extreme disappointment at the non-participation of Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez.” The statement added: “Despite some news, Tatler did not have any information about the non-participation of Messi or Suárez before kick-off. “Messi and Suárez were deemed unfit to play by their team’s medical department, much to the disappointment of everyone, including ours.”
As for Inter Miami, the team’s world tour is supposed to continue to Japan and a match against Vissel Kobe on February 7 before finishing in Messi’s native Argentina and a match against the former club’s Newell’s Old Boys on the 15th. of February. But once again, the fans will demand Beckham and company. “be honest” as Reports in Spain and on social networks. On Sunday he suggested that the Vissel Kobe game had been canceled and that the team would return home early.