He plays in Japan but not in Hong Kong. In China there is a storm over Messi
“Hong Kongers hate Messi, Inter-Miami and the black hand behind it“. And again: “Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong. His lies and hypocrisy are disgusting”. Words and music by Regina Ip, member of the legislative council of the former British colony. The reason for all this hatred towards the Argentine champion? The alleged injury that kept him out of the pre-season friendly match organized by his team in Hong Kong and for which several fans had paid considerable prices for tickets.
To make the situation worse, the fact that Less than three days later, Messi played the last 30 minutes plus injury time of another friendly match, but this time in Japan. That is, China's great Asian rival. In short, not exactly the best of diplomacy in a contingency in which every move is carefully observed and in which China glimpses possible calculations behind a move that many define as disrespectful.
Messi apologized to fans in a post published on the Chinese platform Weibo on Wednesday, saying he missed the match due to a “swollen and painful” groin injury. “Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to play… especially these games where we travel so far and people are excited to watch our games. I hope I can come back to play in Hong Kong,” he wrote in Chinese and Spanish.
Not enough. The striker's absence in Hong Kong sparked a controversy that has continued ever since and prompted requests for reimbursement. Some 825 complaints, totaling HK$5.59 million (US$715,000), were lodged with the city's Consumer Council. With fans traveling from across the region to attend the match, the board said the highest amount involved in a single case was HK$82,960, while the average amount of each claim was HK$82,960. $6,776.
Also John Lee, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region expressed his support for the fans' requests for refunds. “As a fan, what makes me most angry is not the fact that Messi was not able to play, but the feeling of having been deceived and disrespected,” a fan named Wang, who he traveled from China's southern Guangdong province to watch the match.
Making the situation worse is the fact that less than three days later Messi instead took to the field in Japan. Unlike the 38,323 spectators who crowded the stadium in Hong Kong, in Tokyo there were also several empty seats and only 28,614 seats were sold out of a capacity of 80,000 spectators. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said Hong Kongers would be “shocked” and that the city's residents deserved “a reasonable explanation”.
The organizers' money and the suspicions between Hong Kong and China
“The coach of Inter Miami said that Messi could not play in Hong Kong due to injury, but in the match in Japan he seemed fine and ran for a decent time,” the office told South China Morning Post. The Hong Kong government has already asked for answers from the organisers, Tatler Asia, who allegedly paid Inter Miami “almost 7 million dollars” to show the club a tour of the city.
The suspicion expressed by some Chinese sources is that Messi's difference in behavior was motivated by political considerations. Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at the semi-official think tank Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, raised the possibility that the footballer was not intent on not irritating the United States and therefore had avoided some officials due to the sanctions imposed by Washington to some officials, starting with the local chief executive John Lee himself.
It is also noted that the Uruguayan striker also Luis Suarez, Already Messi's teammate during his time at Barcelona, he did not take the field in Hong Kong but instead played regularly in Tokyo. Some conspiracy theories are fueled by the current certainly not idyllic relations between China and the United States, as well as by the alliance between Japan and Washington itself. The affair risks having repercussions not only on Messi and Inter Miami, but on all of US soccer.
In 2019, the National Basketball Association risked losing its enormously lucrative position in China after the general manager of the Houston Rockets had expressed his support for the Hong Kong protesters and had caused some matches to be blacked out. Now the ball risks exploding, one of the great disappointments of President Xi Jinping who so far has failed to encourage progress in the Chinese football scene.
There national was eliminated in the first round of the Asian Cup taking place in Qatar, worsening its performance in recent editions. And foreign champions go to Saudi Arabia, no longer to the Asian country. Suning remains, in the running to win their twentieth championship of Inter in Italy. Even if the debt with Oaktree remains a burden that will be difficult to get rid of.
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