Aftermath of Messi’s absence from Hong Kong Friendlies

On the evening of 7 February, Miami International and Kobe Victory FC played an exhibition match in Tokyo, Japan, with the much-anticipated appearance of the world’s top football star, the Argentinean god Messi, on the sidelines. The match against the Hong Kong All Stars on 4 February was the only one of the six performance matches on the tour in which Messi was absent from the Miami International team. The controversy is still festering.

Messi in China: “Cold feet”?

The popular Argentinean footballer did not play in the pre-season friendly match in Hong Kong on the 4th of this month for Miami International, leading to dissatisfaction from the sold-out crowd of 40,000 spectators. Messi claimed on 7 February that he was unable to play in Hong Kong due to a groin injury, but that night Messi, who was supposed to be a substitute, played 30 minutes in the friendly match between Japan and Kobe Victory Ship, causing a huge upset among fans and officials in China.

On the 30th day of the Lunar New Year, 9 February, the Sports Bureau of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China, announced that, “for reasons that are well known” (how can you say that?), the Argentina national team’s trip to China had been cancelled. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, 10 February, the Beijing Football Association (BFA) announced that there were no plans to hold any matches in which the Argentine national team would participate. Earlier this year, the Argentine national team announced that it would play two warm-up matches in March in Beijing and Hangzhou, which would be important matches in the team’s preparation for the 2024 Copa America. Now, the plans for these two matches have basically gone out the window. This means that Messi’s matches in China have been cancelled, and the Chinese brands that Messi’s endorses will have a hard time gaining support for their brands by releasing the his image. Some commentators have said that his game is “over” in China.

But how much of an impact have these actions actually had on Messi?

What kind of player is Messi?

Messi, 36, was born in Argentina, of Catalan and Italian descent, and began his professional career in Argentina. As a teenager, he showed his talent by joining his local club Grandoli Juniors at the age of four, coached by his father, and moved to Spain at the age of thirteen to play for Barcelona Juniors in La Liga, where he played from 2005 to 2021, when he moved to Paris Saint-Germain, and then to the United States of America, where Messi signed for Miami in July 2023 to play in the North American League. In 2005, Messi became a Spanish national, but has continued to play for the Argentine national team.

As of August 2023, Messi has won 44 club and national championships in his career, making him the most decorated footballer of all time, with 35 coming from Barcelona, three from Paris Saint-Germain, and one from Miami International. At the international level, he has won five championships for Argentina, the U-20s and the U-23s.

His impressive record has earned him the honour of being the greatest player of all time. According to Forbes, he has amassed a net worth of more than US$620 million during his professional football career and earns an annual income of US$131 million, making him the highest-paid athlete in the world. His earnings from sports account for US$75 million, while other earnings, such as advertisements for big brands such as adidas, Ritz chips or PepsiCo, are also significant, amounting to US$55 million. He plays for Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, where he earns a staggering US$43 million a year, or US$827,000 a week, or US$8,790 an hour.

Messi had a difficult childhood and was born with congenital dwarfism and was supported by Barcelona FC to complete his development. As well as spending on luxury homes, hotels and private jets, Messi is also a generous giver of his own fortune, having partnered with UNICEF in 2007 to set up a foundation that aims to help disadvantaged children around the world. In 2017, he donated money to help build classrooms for 1,600 war orphans in Syria, saying in a statement, “Every time I see a child smile, hopeful, and full of joy, I am inspired. This legendary and caring footballer has made him a popular footballer, with nearly 500 million followers on his IG, and commercial messages worth tens of millions of dollars.

For such a rich and well-paid player, even without the sponsorship of a Chinese brand, the impact on him would be negligible. But is he the only one to be blamed for Messi not playing in Hong Kong?

The Western media, when reporting on the incident, had a very different view from the Chinese netizens.

Is it a case of the Hong Kong government pumping water on the cheap?

But there is a different voice in the criticism: the organisers signed a contract with MIAMI for the team competition, but not with Messi’s personal team. The contract is apparently a “cheap, non-compulsory Messi playing contract” that allows players to refuse to play if they are unwell, injured or medically unfit to play. Moreover, rumour has it that the contract amount was less than the HK$30 million offered by Miami International, which resulted in the player not being subject to the mandatory breach of contract, and thus Messi did not play. Contrary to Hong Kong’s actions, Miami International signed a high-priced compulsory attendance contract for their friendly match with Japanese professional team Kobe Satsushika on the 7th of July, so Messi had to play in the last half hour of the match, despite his leg injury.

It has also been revealed that the Hong Kong government’s previous claim that it had “cancelled” the visit of the USMNT team to the river cruise and the Kai Tak Stadium, which opened this year, was in fact due to the fact that the Hong Kong side had offered a price of HK$1 million for the participation of the USMNT team’s stars including USMNT and Uruguayan star Luis Suarez, which was not agreed upon in the end. There was a public outcry when the news broke. The price of an Instagram post by Messi alone would have been US$2.6 million, but to ask for the whole team for HK$1 million is a fool’s errand. The Saudi Arabian government invited Messi as a tourist ambassador for HK$200 million, but only asked him to participate in a few events. I believe it is only the wishful thinking of the Hong Kong government or the organisers that Messi should come to Hong Kong to play football with PR activities attached.

The incident was escalated to the level of “interference from outside forces”.

The official media of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has been criticizing the Messi incident in a high profile. In an article published by the Global Times on 7 February, the official media of the Communist Party of China (CPC) pointed out that the absence of Messi from the Hong Kong event could not be ruled out as a “political motivation”, and that “Hong Kong intends to build up an event economy, and there are external forces deliberately trying to use this as a means to embarrass Hong Kong”. In addition, Global People, a magazine of People’s Daily, published an article entitled “Messi’s’ Boss Linked to CIA” on 8th February, in which it was alleged that the boss of the Miami International team was linked to the US CIA. While it is understandable to be dissatisfied with Messi, it may not be wise to escalate the incident to international political criticism.

A number of Hong Kong Legislative Councillors “on behalf of” Hong Kong people have voiced their discontent with Messi on the Internet, including Fok Kai-kong, who wrote a 1,000-word article criticizing International Miami’s performance in Japan as “rubbing salt into the wounds of Hong Kong fans”; Councillor Edmond Ho Kwan-yiu, who has also repeatedly posted an article, with a photo of the draft of the 23rd Article of the Basic Law, criticizing Messi for “insulting the Chinese Government”, and who intentionally took a detour to avoid Chief Executive Eric Li Ka-chiu at the award presentation ceremony at the Hong Kong Stadium, “obviously insulting the HKSAR Government at the expense of the Chief Executive”. He also threatened that “it is not a gentleman who does not take revenge”. Regina Ip, who is also the Convenor of the Executive Council, even posted a message in English on social media platform X on the night of the Hong Kong Showdown, saying outright that “Hong Kong people hate Messi, Miami International and the masterminds behind the show because they have treated Hong Kong coldly and calculatedly”, and even pointed out that Messi should not be allowed to come to Hong Kong again. All of a sudden, all kinds of verbal and written criticisms have been escalating.

However, as an international city, Hong Kong’s repeated public speeches by government officials in the face of such a world-renowned footballer as Messi have clearly made the world look down on Hong Kong’s governing team. What is supposed to be a private commercial dispute has gone out of its way to expose the incompetence and ignorance of the governors.

As Beijing has elevated this storm to the level of political and international struggle, the organisers are forced to adopt a crisis public relations approach in order to maximise their losses. Currently, the organisers, Asian “Shangliu”, have announced a half refund to those who bought tickets through official channels and apologised again for the incident. It is not yet clear whether the refund will offset the anger of the fans in Hong Kong and mainland China. After all, the official behaviour has been elevated to the level of an ideology, and the organisers have emphasised that the absence of Messi was due to an injury, so it’s a case of the public talking to the public and the public talking to the private sector. Perhaps a refund to the fans is just the first step, and it is expected that it will take a concerted effort from the business community to reach a settlement that satisfies all parties, and we cannot rule out the possibility that compensation will eventually be required to settle the matter once and for all.

“Hong Kong is not what it used to be

The people and government of Hong Kong welcomed the team and the star of the show, Messi, with open arms. Miami International’s pink and black decorations and the team’s large promotional posters could be seen everywhere, and local newspapers devoted a lot of space to Messi’s visit to Hong Kong for several days in a row. However, just one day later, on 4 February, the joy dissipated and the atmosphere took a sharp turn for the worse – Messi didn’t even come off the field for one minute to play football in Hong Kong, with no smiles and no interaction, and as the captain of the team, he even stuck his pockets in his pockets to go around Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Mr. Lee Ka Chiu, and others, and didn’t accept the award at the award presentation ceremony. It must be said that the fragile self-esteem of countless “patriots” and “pinkies” was deeply stung.

Time has changed and circumstances have changed. The fact that Miami International’s visit to China has turned from a good thing to a bad thing reflects the fact that Hong Kong is no longer in the limelight and is not valued by the people. All of this is related to the deformed political ecology of Hong Kong after the implementation of the national security law – red lines everywhere, pan-political operations, arrests day after day, even the pro-establishment Members have complained one after another about “whether it is possible to return to normalcy and not to put national security first”, but unfortunately, in return, the Chief Executive refuted it, and even upgraded it to a “soft confrontation with ulterior motives”. The programme of putting national security before everything else is causing Hong Kong to go downhill, failing to attract foreign investment, and naturally the economy will not pick up. However, Beijing and Hong Kong are still singing the same tune of “perfecting governance, emerging from governance, and restoring Hong Kong to normalcy”, which is Beijing’s political bottom line and also the slogan that Hong Kong’s Chief Executive has to abide by. There is a huge gap between the government and the people: the people know clearly that there is no such thing as restoration of normalcy, and there is no such thing as governance for the betterment of Hong Kong, but the government is still saying that Hong Kong is better than before. The failure of Messi to take the field at this point in time was undoubtedly a blow to the Hong Kong government.

In particular, the festering controversy a week or so after the match has made the international community feel ashamed. The fact that a sporting event, which should have been a contractual showpiece, has been turned into a fierce criticism of Miami International and Messi, will only lead to more foreign investment, foreign businessmen, and what Beijing calls “external forces” to bypass Hong Kong. After all, the world is a big place and you don’t have to go to Hong Kong or China. In the foreseeable future, the question may no longer be whether they will come to Hong Kong to “play the big game”, but whether they can be hired.

Author/Editorial Sameway

Photo/Internet