HONG KONG — Lionel Messi fans were infuriated after the Argentine soccer superstar failed to participate in an exhibition game in Hong Kong they had paid hundreds of dollars to see him play.
A sellout crowd of 40,000 fans attended the exhibition match Sunday between a team of top Hong Kong players and Inter Miami, the Major League Soccer club Messi joined last year. Many in the crowd wore the blue and white of Argentina’s 2022 World Cup champion national team or the pink of Inter Miami, both of which Messi captains.
Videos from Hong Kong Stadium shared with NBC News showed fans chanting “Refund!” and booing while David Beckham, a co-owner of Inter Miami, addressed the crowd after the match, which Inter Miami won 4-1.
The Hong Kong government, which has been trying to win the world back to the increasingly isolated Chinese territory, said it was “deeply disappointed” by Messi’s absence and threatened to reduce the 16 million Hong Kong dollars ($2 million) in sponsorship it had provided.
The luxury media brand Tatler Asia, the game’s commercial partner, said Monday that it would withdraw the government funding request.
Jameson Gong, who spent 3,000 Hong Kong dollars ($385) on a ticket for his 12-year-old son, said he was “livid” about how the situation had been handled.
“People need to be held accountable, fired, whatever,” Gong, an American comedian and longtime resident of Hong Kong, told NBC News. “This is an embarrassment.”
Messi was featured heavily in advertisements for the event, tickets for which ranged from 880 to 4,880 Hong Kong dollars ($112 to $624) and sold out within an hour in December.
“Let’s be honest, no one was going to buy a ticket if they knew Messi was not going to play,” said Gong, who staged a brief one-man protest Monday in Hong Kong’s central business district, holding a sign that described the game as the city’s “biggest scam.”
“If he’s injured, no problem, we understand that. But announce it,” he said, adding that Messi could have addressed the crowd or signed autographs if he was unable to play.
The public disappointment is a blow to Hong Kong officials’ efforts to energize the international financial hub, whose reputation in recent years has been battered by a government crackdown on dissent and some of the world’s most stringent Covid-19 restrictions.
If the Hong Kong government wants to “make Hong Kong a big city with big events, how could they let this happen?” Gong asked.
Speaking to reporters Sunday after the match, Inter Miami head coach Gerardo Martino acknowledged fans’ disappointment but said he didn’t want to risk worsening the injuries of Messi, 36, and his teammate Luis Suárez of Uruguay, 37, who also sat out the game.
Inter Miami has been on a global tour of exhibition games ahead of its regular season, which starts Feb. 21. Messi and his teammates had arrived in Hong Kong on Friday from Saudi Arabia and are due to play again in Japan on Wednesday.
Fans traveled from mainland China and other parts of Asia to see Messi, who hadn’t played in Hong Kong since 2014.
Zhang Yiyi, 22, an admissions counselor from the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, said her dream of seeing Messi play in person had been “shattered.”
“I have complicated feelings,” she said. “I truly wanted to see his magical power firsthand, to fulfill a dream of being a fan for 14 years.”
Yin Chao, 36, an advertising and marketing professional, paid 2,980 Hong Kong dollars ($380) for a ticket and took time off from his job in Shanghai just to see Messi play, noting that there may be few opportunities left for him to personally witness the talents of aging, injury-plagued stars such as Messi and Suárez.
“It’s the post-match remarks made by the host and Beckham that we’re truly feeling a bit angry about,” he said. “In the face of boos from the entire crowd, [they] seemed to just be going through the motions and not responding at all.”
Michel Lamunière, Tatler Asia’s chairman and chief executive, said the company’s contract with Inter Miami required that Messi and other high-profile players participate in the game unless they were injured.
He said that the official team sheet submitted before the game Sunday listed Messi and Suárez as substitutes and that “accordingly, Tatler Asia had every expectation that both would play.”
Lamunière said that Tatler Asia “immediately informed the government” when it learned at halftime that Messi would be unable to play because of injury and that it asked Inter Miami to have Messi to address the fans instead, “to no avail.”
Lamunière did not mention the possibility of refunds or take questions from reporters at the news conference.
Hong Kong sports minister Kevin Yeung said earlier that the government’s contract with Tatler Asia required Messi to play at least 45 minutes, “subject to fitness and safety considerations.”
Yeung said that Tatler Asia had confirmed before the match that Messi would play in the second half and that the government was not told he would not be playing until 10 minutes before the end of the game.
“We therefore immediately requested them to explore other remedies, such as Messi appearing on the field to interact with his fans and receiving the trophy,” Yeung said. “Unfortunately, as you all see, these did not work out.”