Fans are angry about not seeing injured Lionel Messi play

Hong Kong’s football fans began the Sunday hoping for a good day but ended it utterly disappointed. There was a raging outcry among fans when Lionel Messi was absent during Inter Miami’s recent friendly match against Hong Kong XI.

The Argentine Genius was on the bench for this friendly and was available as a substitute but never saw any game time. Even without their captain, Inter Miami rather ran amok and secured a 4-1 win with goals from Robert Taylor, Lawson Sunderland, Leonardo Campana and Ryan Sailor. At the same time, Luis Suarez was even substituted and did not even come in as a substitute, reports Football Scores Today.

The stadium had a crowd of 38,323 people who had bought tickets priced above 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. In the second half, chants of ‘We want Messi’ rang out when it became clear that he would not be arriving, and they started calling for their money back. When the final whistle blew, and Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham wanted to say thank you to the fans for their support, they just jeered and booed and gave him a thumbs-down.

However, the Hong Kong government commented in a statement that; “as regards Messi’s failure to play the match today, the government and all football fans are highly disappointed at the arrangement made by the organiser. The organiser needs to explain this to all the football fans.”

Hong Kong had already been adorned with Messi’s face on giant screens—even a boat on which his face was sailed around the harbour before the match. At the same time, pop-up stores were set up, which imitated Inter Miami’s dressing room, where Messi’s jersey and other products were sold.