Partial refund for Messi no-show in Hong Kong may soothe fans but wider public, mainland Chinese still angry, analysts say
- ‘Perhaps Inter Miami might have underestimated the seriousness of the consequences of this event,’ political analyst Lau Siu-kai says
- Mainlanders are calling for various boycotts on popular Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu
A partial refund to ticket holders of last Sunday’s beleaguered Inter Miami football match in which star player Lionel Messi was a no-show may help to ease the anger of those who handed over money but will have little effect on soothing the wider public in Hong Kong and mainland China, analysts have said.
The Beijing Football Association on Saturday said the capital currently had “no plans to organise games involving Messi” in a statement issued after a surge in inquiries from fans and social media users.
The Hangzhou Sports Bureau a day earlier announced it had cancelled a planned friendly match with the Argentina national team next month, while earlier in the day the organiser of the Hong Kong match Tatler Asia said it would give back 50 per cent of the ticket price to fans.
The statements indicate all of the events the football team was reportedly scheduled to take part in on the mainland in March will not be happening.
Lau Siu-kai, a consultant at semi-official Beijing think tank the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, on Friday said he agreed public anger would continue to “linger” without a plausible explanation for Messi’s “abnormal behaviour”.
