Lionel Messi’s controversy in Hong Kong: An unexpected diplomatic drama

This March, Chinese football fans and Lionel Messi’s loyal Asian followers were due to watch the Argentine star and his national team play in their own home. A unique opportunity that any football lover would not want to miss. After all, it is not every day that Messi, widely recognized as one of the best footballers – if not the best to ever touch a football – comes to play in cities like Hangzhou or Beijing.

However, it was not to be. Messi and his compatriots did not travel to China, and the Chinese fans were left with no choice but to rue a missed opportunity to see their footballing hero. And all because Messi recently went to Hong Kong and inadvertently left in his wake a diplomatic and sporting drama that ended with the cancellation of the Argentinian national team’s matches scheduled for this month in China.

The drama came about as the American team Inter Miami, the club where Messi plays, made its first international tour in February. During which the club visited Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, and Japan, playing against the Saudi teams Al Nassr and Al Hilal, the Hong Kong All Star, and Japan’s Vissel Kobe.

Inter Miami’s friendly tour was a source of great excitement among local fans – and also a good example of the absurd nature of modern football. One can easily wonder what on Earth an American team with only six years of existence to its name is doing traveling around the world to play friendly matches in the traditional footballing meccas of Hangzhou and Riyadh. Anyway.

The world of football was shaken by a minor detail that ended up becoming a controversy of international proportions during Inter Miami’ tour of Asia: Messi did not play a single minute of the match played in Hong Kong on February 4.

The world star, and main attraction of the tour, spent the entire match on the bench due to an injury, which did not please the Hong Kong fans and the thousands of fans who traveled from mainland China to see the match. As the clock ticked on and La Pulga did not take to the field, the patience of the local fans began to wear thin, and the Florida team was booed by their hosts, who chanted “refund!” and “where is Messi?”

The Chinese state newspaper Global Times – a mouthpiece of the Communist Party of China – in its analysis of the event noted that Messi’s absence raised questions about possible differential treatment towards Hong Kong and claimed that the impact of Messi’s absence “far exceeded the realm of sports.”

“The match in Hong Kong became the only one in Messi’s six pre-season friendly matches on this trip where he was absent. The situation in this match has magnified these doubts and suspicions on the integrity of Inter Miami and Messi himself,” said the Global Times.

Conservative Hong Kong politician Regina Ip Lau Suk Yee went even further, declaring that Messi’s actions had made him persona non grata in the territory, according to an opinion piece she wrote in the South China Morning Post.

“The people of Hong Kong hate Messi, Inter Miami and the black hand behind them, for the deliberate and calculated snub to Hong Kong. Messi should never be allowed to return to Hong Kong. His lies and hypocrisy are disgusting,” the politician wrote on her X account in February.

The Global Times also claimed that some fans traveled up to 12 hours in the hope of seeing the Argentine star, and it is reported that the price of tickets for the match in Hong Kong ranged between $113 and $624 dollars.

In the weeks and days before the long-awaited match in Hong Kong, the Chinese city was consumed by a Messianic furor, with images of the player visible everywhere, on banners, advertisements, and even on the sails of the traditional junk boats of the area.

The annoyance of the Chinese fans was not limited only to the absence of Messi on the field of play. The situation was exacerbated by the fact that the Argentine participated in the match against Japanese side Vissel Kobe a few days later. This disparity in Messi’s participation in the two matches only served to increase frustration among Chinese fans, who felt aggrieved and disappointed by the apparent lack of consideration towards them.

In reference to the incident, Miles Yu, director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute, commented on the China Insider Podcast that the Communist Party of China (CCP) believes that there is a constant and coordinated international conspiracy aimed at overthrowing its government. 

This belief leads the CCP to frantically search for evidence to support this theory and feed its own paranoia. According to Yu, this mentality causes the CCP to magnify minor incidents, treating them as evidence of international conspiracies against China, and Messi’s case serves as a clear example of this trend.

Several factors contribute to the magnification of the incident, including the recent political change in Argentina with the arrival to power of President Javier Milei, who has publicly shared his distaste of China and his lack of tolerance towards any system that he considers socialist or communist, thus unbalancing the relationship of Messi’s native Argentina with China.

For example, Milei’s refusal to align Argentina with Chinese-dominated international organizations such as the BRICS – something that several previous governments saw as a priority – is perceived by Chinese authorities as antagonistic to Beijing’s interests.

The cancellation of the two friendly matches of the Argentine National Team in Chinese territory, announced by the Sports Office of the city of Hangzhou, was the first clear sign of the consequences of Messi’s no-show and the political tension it created between both nations.

Despite the fact that the Argentine Football Association had officially confirmed the matches against Nigeria in Hangzhou and against the Ivory Coast in Beijing, the Chinese authorities declared that “the  conditions for holding the event are immature and it has been decided that the event should be canceled,” Chinese authorities said.

The fact that Messi played in Japan in particular also served to stoke nationalist sentiments with the Chinese state. In China there is historical resentment towards Japan due to the country’s invasion of China during World War II and its proximity to the United States. Therefore, Japan is constantly criticized and attacked by the official Chinese media, and Messi’s appearance in Inter Miami’s match in Japan a couple of days after his absence in Hong Kong reinforced the CCP’s own theories and attacks towards Messi.

Messi’s public apologies for his no-show in Hong Kong failed to quell the initial discomfort among Hong Kongese and Chinese fans. Although he expressed his sincere desire to return and play in Hong Kong in the future, as well as to return to China soon to greet his fans, the Argentine’s words fell on deaf ears due to the indignation of the fans who had invested time and money in hoping to see it in action.

The company organizing the match in Hong Kong announced that it will issue a 50% refund to ticket holders for the match on February 4 for a cumulative value of $7.2 million due to Messi’s absence.

The disappointment expressed by the government and fans was, according to the Global Times, “completely understandable.”

As a result, Messi had to publicly apologize – at least three times – to explain his absence, both in press conferences and in videos that he published on social media. Such was the local upset that he published a two-minute video on the Chinese platform Weibo, in which he said that his absence from the party had no political motivation and assured that he had a “very close and very special relationship with China.” .

His words eventually managed to calm the discomfort generated. Hu Xijin, former editor of the state media Global Times and one of the main voices critical of Messi when the drama broke out, relaxed his position and publicly accepted La Pulga’s apology.

“Messi […] ruled out political reasons, his attitude seemed sincere. Now I personally accept his explanation. Of course, his image in Hong Kong and the mainland will be hard to repair. It is the price he needs to bear,” Xijin, an ardent promoter of the official party line, wrote on X in mid-February.

Bizarrely, Chinese state media even alluded that Inter Miami has ties to the CIA that encouraged the Argentine’s absence in Miami. A Global Times article suggested that there are ties between the club’s owners and anti-communist movements, and that Messi was therefore absent from the match on orders from above, reinforcing the CCP’s belief in external plots against the Chinese state.

This is not the first diplomatic setback Messi has faced in China. In June last year, the player was detained upon landing in China to reunite with his national team due to lack of a valid visa.

The confusion derived from the fact that Messi had entered Taiwan on his way to China, an act that he carried out with his Spanish passport and that he was therefore able to do without a visa, since Spanish citizens do not require a visa to enter Taiwan.

However, China does request a visa from Spanish citizens, but Messi did not have one since he “believed that he did not need it, that his Spanish passport would be enough. […] Lionel thought that Taiwan belonged to China,” according to the outlet Medio Tiempo. The problem was eventually resolved.

The Messi incident in Hong Kong reveals not only the magnitude of political sensitivities within the CCP, but also the way in which the political factor and control by the state’s communications apparatus permeates all aspects of life and society in the country.

The overreaction by Chinese authorities and official media, especially through platforms such as the Global Times – a staunch defender of the Chinese central government – serves as a vivid reminder of how politics shapes perceptions and actions in China, even within the realm of sports.

I doubt there will be much of a rush to invite Messi back to Hong Kong any time soon.