The Chinese authorities announced the cancellation of a friendly of the Argentina team for “reasons that everyone knows” after the controversy over the absence of Lionel Messi at an Inter Miami match in Hong Kong.
The albiceleste had announced a tour of China from March 18 to 26 with matches against Nigeria in Hangzhou, in the east, and against the Ivory Coast in Beijing, in the last preparation window before the Copa América in the United States-2024.
But the atmosphere became strained around the Argentine captain after he did not participate due to injury in a friendly last Sunday in Hong Kong for which fans paid more than $500.
“A company was in discussion with the Argentine soccer team to come to Hangzhou in March to play a friendly match,” the Hangzhou Sports Office said in a statement on Friday night.
“Considering the reasons that everyone knows, according to the competent authorities, the conditions for the event to take place are not met and it has been decided to cancel it,” he added.
The Argentine star and the co-owner of the Inter Miami, David Beckhamthey left the Hong Kong stadium, where many fans from mainland China had attended, booed and whistled.
The '10' barely interacted with the fans, who had filled the stadium with Argentina's albiceleste shirts and Inter Miami's pink ones, and he avoided greeting the authorities at the end of the match. Anger among Chinese fans increased three days later when they saw a smiling Messi play 30 minutes of another friendly in Japan.
The influential Chinese nationalist newspaper Global Times questioned the footballer's “integrity” in an editorial and demanded a “reasonable explanation” for what happened before the March games. Although the second friendly in Beijing has not been cancelled, the cancellation of the first match leaves Argentina's Asian tour in the air, which has an important market in China.
In June, the new world champions already played a friendly in Beijing in a visit that allowed them to close juicy sponsorship contracts with local companies. Users on the popular Chinese social network Weibo supported the cancellation. “If he doesn't respect Chinese fans, we can't let him take a cent out of Chinese pockets,” wrote one netizen.
“We had given him our love and he treats us like this. He deserves this setback,” said another. The organizers of the match in Hong Kong, Tatler Asia magazine, promised a 50% refund to those who had purchased tickets.
AFP
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