Messi is involved in political crisis

 Protests over Lionel Messi’s absence from his team Inter Miami’s match in Hong Kong extended to China, where some went so far as to accuse the flea of ​​seeking to insult Beijing.

 Messi angered the fans when he remained on the bench during a friendly match against the Hong Kong League Stars team due to injury.

 The fans, who paid about 570 euros to see Messi, chanted, “Compensate us.”

 But when the Argentine star played 30 minutes of his team’s friendly match against Japanese League champion Vissel Kobe, discontent increased in China.

 The company that organized the meeting in Hong Kong, Tatler Asia, announced its “deep regret” and promised those who bought tickets a 50% refund of their money.

 “Injuries are part of football and we understand that,” however, we were saddened that the players did not show enough respect to the fans in attendance.” the company said.

  “We immediately asked the owners and management of Inter Miami to urge Messi to appear in front of the audience and explain to them personally why he was unable to play. But that did not happen in the end.” She added.

 The Global Times newspaper indicated that the Argentine star wanted to harm Hong Kong’s reputation.

 The newspaper wrote, “One theory is that Messi’s actions were politically motivated, as Hong Kong wanted to stimulate the economy through this event, and that external forces deliberately wanted to insult Hong Kong with this incident, and this hypothesis cannot be ruled out.”

 Messi expressed his regret for the bad luck of not being able to play, and hoped that he would be able to return to playing in Hong Kong in the future.

 But the Hong Kong government’s chief advisor, Regina Ip, said Lionel Messi should never be allowed to return.

 “The people of Hong Kong hate Messi, Inter Miami, and the dark hand behind them, for the deliberate and calculated disdain heaped on Hong Kong,”she said on Twitter. “His lies and hypocrisy are disgusting.” she added.