Hong Kong’s Lionel Messi blame game: is this the smoking gun that nails Inter Miami?
- A piece of paper and a tweet leave David Beckham’s US club with questions to answer, after they depart Hong Kong leaving a trail of heartbreak and acrimony
- The no-show of star player Messi was blamed on an injury, but the organisers say naming him as a substitute suggested he was fit
As the blame game continued in Hong Kong over football fans being denied the chance to see Lionel Messi play in the city, one piece of paper and a social media post were emerging as bones of contention.
Amid the inquest over Inter Miami’s match against a local team on Sunday, when a near-40,000 crowd paid handsomely to watch the world’s greatest player only to leave disappointed, the event’s organiser Tatler Asia has said naming Messi as a substitute amounted to the US club indicating he was fit to play.
The non-appearance of the Argentinian was attributed by Miami afterwards to injury, with a decision having been made in the afternoon that he could not be risked.
But rather than being mistakenly assumed to be involved through his mere presence on the Miami bench, Messi was indeed listed on Sunday on the team sheet that was submitted to match officials and signed by a member of club staff, as is the norm in professional football.
So, too, was Luis Suarez, the second biggest name in the team, who also did not play.
