Chinese sports officials have cancelled two friendly matches featuring world champions Argentina after their star player Lionel Messi failed to appear for his team in a Hong Kong exhibition match.
Argentina had announced a tour of China from March 18 to 26, during which it would face Nigeria in Hangzhou and Ivory Coast in Beijing.
However, a high-profile friendly between Inter Miami and a select XI in Hong Kong last week drew jeers and calls for refunds as Messi did not play due to injury.
Some nationalist politicians and media sources have interpreted Messi’s absence in the 4-1 Inter Miami victory — and his subsequent appearance in a similar match in Japan — as a disrespect to China, without providing evidence.
“Beijing does not intend, for the time being, to organize the match in which Lionel Messi was to participate,” the Beijing Football Association, which governs football in the city, stated in a press release Saturday.
The Hangzhou match had already been canceled on Friday evening.
“Given the reasons that everyone knows, according to the competent authorities, the conditions for the event to take place are not met,” said the Hangzhou Sports Bureau.
Widely considered the best player of his generation, Messi is a highly marketable sportsman who people around the world will pay top dollar to see, even in the twilight of his trophy-laden career.
Spectators who had paid upwards of 1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($125) to see the 36-year-old in the southern Chinese city chanted “Refund!” when he sat out the match, gave thumbs-down signs and drowned out the team’s co-owner David Beckham with jeers as he tried to thank the crowd.
The Hong Kong government demanded an explanation from the match’s organisers, Tatler Asia.
Tatler has since promised spectators a 50-percent refund.
Just days after the no-show, however, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner played 30 minutes of a friendly match in Japan — causing outrage and accusations that he had singled out China.
Messi has said it was “bad luck” that he could not play and that he hoped to return to the city.
The cancellation of the matches in China is a headache for the Argentine Football Federation, which considers the Asian giant a strategic market.
In June 2023, Argentina played a friendly in Beijing during a visit that resulted in lucrative contracts with local companies.
(Saturday Vanguard)