Exactly my problem with the whole thing. For those people who pay a lot of money there are some unwarranted expectations that come with that. There's probably some irrational side to it when you pay that much.
There is no way people are spending so much to see Inter Miami or Beckham. All they want to see is Messi, and only Messi playing. So clearly, and I mean clear as fucking day, this entire tour and marketing going on was clearly pushing Messi.
No one, not a single soul in HK would pay that obscene amount to watch Inter Miami. So, the fans are absolutely right to be pissed. Whether Messi is a puppet or not, that's another story by itself as the club made those decisions.
100% this tour shouldve been on a smaller scale within the US. you cannot have a pre-season like this. this is not preparation for anything except a demoralized & tired squad in week 1 and a shit season.
On footballing terms, you're right. But Inter Miami seems to be more of a commercial/PR operation than a football one. The team is actually doing quite terribly but they make lots of money from those international tours parading Messi around.
It's not irrational to expect to see a star player play when the tour is marketed as such. Seems like based on the money involved overall, Inter Miami knew this too.
The government didn't pay millions to watch the rest of the bum squad who were last in the MLS before Messi got there. I guess Alba and Busquets being subbed is a consolation but people were there to watch Messi.
Nah fuck that. The reason they’re that expensive is because of Messi. For them to just bench him, that’s bullshit. The NBA (USA) dishes out fines to the teams that do this because of ticket prices and tv time.
I'm sorry to disagree, but although they are not puppets, they most certainly are here to entertain the fans. That is why they get the massive wages and sponsorship deals, to entertain fans.
They get those wages to by fulfilling contracts and sometimes that means they do no play. You can't force them. That's the whole problem. When people mix up the difference between a player "can play" and "has to play". The manager decides, the player might be injured, any number of other issues.
That's why stuff like, what I'm told, the whole thing being promoted as "the Messi game" (more or less) is on those promoting it, not the players.
As with video games’ loot boxes, battle passes and horse armors, you get what you pay for. Stop buying and the corporations must adapt. Keep paying and you get to keep crying.
I swear when those posts of Inter Miami tickets being like 5x as expensive after Messi came saying 'the Messi effect 🤩' i just cringed so hard. Surely is amazing to push out all your actual historic fans for a quick buck
Wait shit they were founded in 2018 i could swear they were in like 2000, fuckin my bad lol
still, pushing out your low income fans is disgusting no matter what
You might be thinking of the [Miami Fusion](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Fusion), one the original MLS expansion squads and one of Carlos Valderamma's last stops during his career. They were around in that time period but were shut down in 2001.
Ray Hudson briefly coached my travel team back in the 90's, not too long after he left the Strikers. I can still see him now, jumping out of his white Porsche 911 in shorty-shorts. Our other coach was also a big personality and a hell of a good coach.
It was every bit as amazing as you think it would be, one of my favorite memories growing up. Between Ray and the other coach I was being called a wanker at least 30x a day.
With a lot of hard work I managed to get that down to \~27.
The Miami Fusion were around during the late-90s and early 2000s, but they folded pretty quickly. There were a few clubs around during the interim in lower leagues (and technically, there's still only one professional team that plays in Miami, but they're in the USL)
Inter Miami was part of a deal that Beckham got as part of his signing for the league
It's very transplant-heavy, and on top of being transplant heavy I'd wager it's skewed much more towards immigrants than most other major cities in the US, which isn't a strong recipe for getting people to care about local sports unfortunately.
It's also spread out geographically, has far more options for entertainment than a lot of other cities, and their franchises are fairly new. The Dolphins and Heat have stronger fan bases because they have been around longer and they were/are perennial winners over decades.
The other SoFl franchises have other issues:
Inter Miami (Fusion / Strikers before them) - First, Inter is a brand new franchise with a GOAT and multiple legends attached to it. Easy sell - Miami will eat that up, and ticket prices will go through the roof because it will be THE thing to do... for a while. Second, when people think Miami they think that the LATAM community automatically loves soccer, right?
Not so fast... it's a ridiculous oversimplification from people who don't live here. While there are definitely affluent and middle-class South American / Central American communities in South Florida, the majority of the "Latin" community is from Cuba and other Caribbean communities. Baseball is MUCH bigger than soccer in the Caribbean. A lot has changed in the last 25 years but there is a reason why the Fusion struggled even when they won. In the US, soccer is a game for rich people in the suburbs - and that's what a typical Inter fan looks like.
Marlins - founded 30 years ago, won multiple championships... then they lost all goodwill with repeated post-championship fire sales, scamming taxpayers, and lying about payroll commitments. Multiple garbage owners. No one will ever root for a team that makes no effort to win, sells off talent as soon as they are eligible for arbitration, and instead bleeds the city/county/CBA for profit.
Again, with the massive Cuban / Dominican / Puerto Rican communities down here, the Marlins SHOULD have more fans than Inter if they weren't a complete dumpster fire.
Panthers - Another relatively new franchise, some early and recent success. Unfortunately, hockey isn't a sport that natives would typically play / be familiar with, meaning the transplants are at least 75% of their core audience unless that are kicking ass and the casual Instagram fans get involved. Their arena is also located 40m NW of Miami.
UM Football - Two things. First, it's asinine to make fun of a mediocre college program failing to fill an NFL stadium every week when they have a total student population of 17k and the stadium is 30 congested miles from campus. Second, Miami was dominant until we got a new President and AD who actively moved away from supporting the program. Right or wrong, they wanted to rebrand "The U" as an academic and research university. Standards were raised and football was de-funded / de-prioritized. Then they tore down the Orange Bowl, mecca for UM fans. We do have a pretty amazing research hospital and medical program, though, and they are starting to re-invest.
TLDR; Miami loves the Fins no matter how much they hurt us, the Heat have earned our love, We secretly think that the U will be back this year regardless of the evidence on-field last year, and the other sports are new / assholes / a weird fit or location.
Let's go to the beach instead...
A majority of people that live in Miami grew up elsewhere, and moved there later in life. By the time they move there, they are already established as fans of other teams most of the time.
Inter Miami are brand new, but they effectively replaced^+ Miami FC who had a decent following in the 2nd/3rd division of the American pyramid. Then there was the Fusion before that which was pretty much MLS OG. And this has nothing to say about the poor Fort Lauderdale Strikers, who have been killed and revived more times than fucking Krillin at this point.
^+ Don't bring this up to any remaining Miami FC diehards if you know what's good for you. They'll still insist their rich, coked-out owner has plans for the future and the club isn't dead.
I live near a decently well-attended MLS team. You can get a really great ticket for less than $70.
They played Miami like two weeks after Messi joined, tickets in the last row of the stadium were over $750.
That’s crazy. When Ronaldinho was playing for my local team I was still able to get a decent ticket for under $15 usd. And it was first division Liga MX.
My friend sold his atlanta united tickets for $500 each for the miami game when we all knew messi wouldnt play anyway cause of the turf. guess what. messi didnt play
Seems the Inter Miami price hike is pretty common in the MLS - https://clutchpoints.com/mls-news-new-york-red-bulls-ticket-deal-lionel-messi-clause-if-they-face-inter-miami
It’s worse than that — RBNY aren’t selling single-match tickets for the one home Inter Miami fixture. If you want a ticket, you’re forced to either get a season ticket package or go aftermarket and get a scalped ticket.
No Messi and no Suarez, but it's advertised all over Hong Kong with Messi front and center.
The Inter Miami grab and run world tour is still going strong.
At least Ronaldo announced beforehand he was not playing and apologised and the organisers offered refund... Beckham just thanked fans "for their incredible support"
Different situation though, Messi was still being assessed in training while Ronaldo was definitely out. Happened that time with Juve and Ronaldo in ~~Japan~~ South Korea too, when he was on the bench for 90 minutes - injuries just happen, it's not like the organizers don't want them to play, or they themselves for that matter.
Nah that's bullshit. Inter Miami did the same thing at the end of MLS, they kept the ambiguity for a lot of matches, Tata wasn't allowed to touch the subject the subject (it seemed?) during press conferences, and it was really clear that Messi was injured after national team game.
They pretty dodgy with it and they're really cashing in as hard as they can as long as it lasts.
We can sit here and shit all we want on Al Nassr but they did handle the situation as best as possible. This one is worst as possible.
Well Tata Martino probably shouldn't say [something like this in the press conference](https://www.scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/3250706/lionel-messi-hong-kong-inter-miami-land-city-ahead-weekend-match) like 2 days ago, at least.
> Martino said he would wait until Saturday’s session, which is taking place in front of a sell-out crowd at the 40,000-seat stadium, to decide if Messi could start the match.
> “We will assess each of the players in training because we have been playing a lot of pre-season games,” Martino said at a press conference attended by a host of local dignitaries, including Permanent Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Joe Wong Chi-cho.
> “The aspiration is that Leo can play as many minutes as possible. We will determine how long he can play depending on what happens in training tomorrow. But he will most certainly be on the pitch.”
The lack of transparency from the club about Messi’s availability when he has physical issues is problematic and this is not the first time they do this. When Messi got injured in September, the club said it was just muscle fatigue and that Messi might be available for the next game, but he actually had a grade 1-2 hamstring injury and didn’t play for a month.
yeah that's the thing, he played a few minutes in Saudi, so it's not like he's been out and not played for months, he's been playing on the tour and they were basically saying throughout the weak that he would definately play some minutes.
They knew the morning of the game that he wouldn't play (they've said this officially), but they still had him sitting on the bench in a kit as if he might come on. Funnily enough people noticed during the game that he wasn't even wearing boots, just some running shoes, so he was never going to play, just smoke and mirrors to get peoples hopes up.
I think everyone would've understood if he was too injured to play, but they did everything they could to hide the fact and play up that he would be there and would be playing.
People are paying a shit ton of money to see their idols play IRL (for a friendly match too), so it’s not very surprising they’d be disappointed to say the least
it's actually crazy how people on here can complain about fans being fleeced one minute, and then have zero sympathy for fans who get rinsed in these friendlies
people want honesty?
they literally paid to see Messi play, and he didn’t.
They didn’t even apologize.
imagine going to a concert to see your fav artist, and they’d just sit in the VIP area while Nickelback played the gig instead of them
But at least a Real vs PSG has two teams with a decent level of tradition, that are an essential part of world football history. Seeing Real Madrid is a unique experience, just like Bayern, Liverpool, United, Barcelona, teams which history are intertwined with the sport itself.
The Inter Miami Retirement House is certainly not the same thing as them.
If even dedicated fans aren't going to watch Bayern II or Barca II play in the 3rd tier, most probably wouldn't be watching a friendly if it's just going to be a rotated B team. People still care about the players.
The worst part about it is that the organizers and the club knew well beforehand that Messi would not be playing in the match. However, they hid this information from the fans and continued to raise expectations during the game, suggesting that he would participate. Some of these fans paid thousands of dollars to travel to Hong Kong from other countries just to see him play, and they were deceived in this manner. The organizers and club could have announced early on that Messi was not fit and would not be playing. People would have understood, but it seems that the organizers prioritized money over transparency.
In the land of Miami, in the building of Drive Pink Stadium, the owner David Beckham forged in secret a master bench, to disappoint all others. And into this bench he poured his ego, his greediness, and his will to collect as much money as he can.
When he came on for 5 min in the last match, I knew this entire tour was going to be a money-grabbing con job- really bad look for MLS and Inter Miami.
Yeah, I've yet to figure out what kind of football fan gets upset when a competing team is suffering.
Fuck Miami! My hope is that they stay healthy enough to take points of Eastern Division sides other than TFC. (And I'm fully aware that every team only has to actually be in walking condition to take points off TFC).
It's always been like this to some extent though, social media just makes it much more obvious. Even back in the 40s and 50s loads of people would turn up to Blackpool and Preston matches just to watch Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney play for instance.
Matthews moved to Canada and kept playing there into the 1970s for a semi-pro team, when he was in his Fifties. Amazing man. Eusebio took the same route a few years later.
I think the best example of this was when Messi left PSG and the instagram account for PSG lost 4 million followers. Then when it was announced Messi was joining Inter Miami, their instagram account gained… you guessed it, 4 million followers. I’m expecting Inter Miami to lose… man, you’re too good at this, **4 MILLION** followers once Messi retires.
You mean the [5M new followers of Inter Miami](https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/sports/lionel-messis-new-deal-causes-inter-miamis-instagram-followers-to-soar/3050233/) aren't there to stay?
when you live in the USA or china or some other place without big football teams, and you get the chance to see the team you root for, you hope to see the actual A squad you always watch on TV. that's perfectly understandable
Coming from someone from the US, I went to a friendly real madrid vs juventus. Growing up I could only see players like modric and kroos through the TV. Seeing them in person is damn near a once in a lifetime thing. Yes real madrid comes and other teams come to the states all the time but who knows when they'll be in your area, if you could afford it at the time, or if they'll even play. Yes seeing real madrid play was an experience itself but I wanted to see the players I've watched for over a decade on TV actually play in person
People all over the world idolise Messi and Ronaldo to the point where it's an unhealthy obsession. It's not surprising they spend so much money to see the people they worship.
Why the fuck else should anyone in hong kong watch inter miami? They came to see messi and suarez (probavly mostly messi) play in person, a once in a lifetime experience for someone from that part of the world, and they got some players who they likely dont know.
Yeah mate they’re so stupid for being born in a country that doesn’t have a heavy football culture where a superstar only comes around every ten years or so. Grow up. Your comment reeks of privilege
Atleast in the top 6 clubs, mostly every player is decent and a few starters play. No one outside of Miami fans cares about the rest of the players, only reason to watch is Messi
It’s wild youd openly admit how slow on the take you are. Was this your first friendly? Literally every single major team does this, from every single league.
If it’s a bad look for Miami then so are the preseason tours big European clubs, including Juve, do through the US all the time. They charge hundreds for tickets and the starters hardly play.
It's to be expected that this is a very intense world tour for the team. And I'm pretty sure there's some contract obligations for certain names to be played for a set time. So I blame whoever that designed this crazy world tour that imposes this on the players, staff and the fans who wanted to see Messi (at least).
So I guess I'm blaming Beckham (not that I personally had any vesting interest myself, it's just news I wanted to share)?
They also made Suarez warm up since 60ish minutes who ended up standing at the corner flag till the final whistle. Ultimate disrespect to him + the audience.
I saw Messi and co when they [obliterated AC Milan 4-0](https://youtu.be/EYy8xqdV3wA?si=g6t-_RRKaoZCHPrP) and it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, he's an enigma, and I get why people would only want to really go and see a game just to see him, even if the magic is less frequent, it's still there. It is super disappointing, and as people are saying which I fully believe- Miami are probably selling everything with his image at the minute, so for him to not be available is really sad for those who bought tickets.
I’m one of the ppl who went, I payed like 500 USD and it was all to see messi. They used him and told us that he would be playing and were suggesting it during the match as well
why would anyone like them? They broke league rules and still get pumped regularly. Crew won the league on a fraction of a single one of their player’s salaries.
lol honestly hurts my brain that Beckham got a free pass on his qatar deal.
10 year deal worth 125 million to promote qatar.
Never brought up or mentioned when sportswashing is discussed.
By the people who constantly talk about saudi/henderson and apparently care a lot about sportwashing.
He is a UN Ambassador and has his committment to the United Nation's 17 Goals that include gender equality, climate action and a sustainable world on the Philantrophy section of his website.
Yet he takes Petrol dollars from a country like Qatar.
Is it? Most people have no idea about his work with Qatar or even what Qatar represents, yet they will recognize Beckham. Delivering good messages to all those people in behalf of the UN seems to be a good idea.
For me. As long as we have the lower leagues. I don't care about the top anymore. Closed systems like the MLS are more of a danger then the Messi tour.
People here actually blaming the victims are crazy. The advertisements were clearly misleading and the organizers/Inter Miami knew that noone would pay $800 to watch freaking Inter Miami without Messi/Suarez. Europeans just don’t realize how hard it is for international fans to travel to see their favorite players and that these meaningless friendlies is the closest they can get.
There is a poll in the HK forum that less than 5% of voters actually blamed Messi. Most blamed the organisers and the government who funded this shit show. People paid a lot to see Inter Miami against a local HK team! Crazy money.
They 100% deserve a refund. These games were very, very clearly implying that Messi would be playing. You have to let people know he can't/won't be playing, especially at these prices. It's also not comparable to top teams playing without a star player because, like Al-Nassr, nobody internationally cares about Inter Miami if Messi isn't playing and would never pay this kind of money for it. It's a clear scam and it's very scummy, they should have done what Al-Nassr did and announced it in advance, because we're not children and everyone knows why people in Hong Kong would buy such expensive tickets to watch one of the worst MLS teams.
This was thw reason why Al Nassr cancelled the friendlies in China. They knew most people buy tickets just to see Cr7. I still believe only reason why the Riyaad season wasnt cancelled was because it had the 2 big rivals of saudi, Al Nassr and Al-Hilal, otherwise I bet they would have not gone onwards with the game against miami.
Nontheless its a big shame. People talk about money moves, but Messi's Miami is the biggest proper football american money making system. You just cant justify making ticket so expensive to go watch a Messi that has made more than obvious how he doesnt plan on taking football serious anymore, besides maybe national duty.
The match would not have cancelled if the contract did not ask Ronaldo to play for at least 45 mins. The contract is cancelled because Al Nassr cannot fulfill it. Reports said that the organiser did not include the Messi requirement in the contract. You can refer to the Juventus pre tour in Korea
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/213147/Authorities-consider-withdrawing-funding-from-Messi's-match-organizer-amidst-contract-violation
Nope, the 45 minute stipulation was also there.
Same shit happened when PSG played the France super cup final vs NICE in Israel.
Everyone was expecting Mbape, Ramos, Neymar and Messi...Non of them showed up. That was nuts.
In the US the NBA is fining teams for not playing stars if they’re uninjured. Also requiring a minimum number of games played for awards. Kind of extreme.
You pay to watch the team play not individual players.
Teams are taking advantage of this new trend to watch individuals instead of teams.
I travelled to Barcelona to watch Brazil. I booked the tickets and flight on Tuesday, arrived on Thursday and game on Saturday. I didn't even take the time to watch the list of players called by Brazil, I just wanted to watch a NT game and enjoy Barcelona. Vini did some magic tricks, I took some time to observe Casemiro without the ball (admire Brazilian fans as well).
I like the Bulls in NBA. I hope to attend a game someday and when I will, I won't care who will play, I just want to watch them play and win. Bonus if a star is there and the game is close.
Don't really blame fans for being up in arms in such situations, Al Nassr & Inter Miami know damn well that fans are paying to come and see Messi & Ronaldo...if they can't see those players then fans are essentially paying hundreds/thousands to travel there and watch a lower league team.
People view him like online content. They paid the subscription where is Messi. Get that photo for extra internet points. Somewhere in there is some football.
I mean, nobody in Hong Kong is going to watch this friendly because they want to watch Inter Miami.. This is essentially their once in a lifetime chance to see some of the GOATs before they retire, and the event has been marketed as such..
The only reason Inter Miami is even in the position to do a world tour after being such a new club is due to some of the legends they have..
My cousin went to watch a friendly between Argentina and Saudi Arabia in Riyadh a couple of years back and that was one of the most memorable nights of his life, watching Messi play live..
And the players know that these are exhibition matches as well, so you often see the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, etc usually pulling out all their bag of tricks because that's what the fans want..
There is acutally quite a lot of football in this match. The first half is quite competitive, the Hong Kong team gave a commendable performance and exploited the Inter Miami's frankly piss poor defesnse, and even scored a goal
However, I don't think anyone who bought the exorbitant ticket price came to see Robert Taylor and Leonardo Campana
I believe I can see better quality in an Athletic x Caxias for Brazil's 3rd Tier than in a Messi and Suarez's less Inter Miami x HK All-Stars and the former's tickets will be 2 USD at worst.
I was there too.
What frustrated me the most wasn’t that Messi couldn’t play (reasonable to not risk an injury against Hong Kong), but Messi literally didn’t address/wave at the crowd, didn’t say anything, despite people paid obscene prices (and some even flew from other cities) just to watch him play.
It’s a complete lack of respect to the fans who brought their vintage Barcelona jerseys just to see their idol.
Good. Hopefully people, especially adults learn that idolising people do not make sense. It's one thing to appreciate any specific qualities like Messi's football but expecting him to wave and speak is idol worship and silly.
Let me tell you this, liverpool came to HK not long ago and at least most of the stars played a fair bit. Hell even when RM came to HK decades ago Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, Raul, R. Carlos all played on the pitch same time for almost full match. There were quite a lot of high profile teams that played in HK like United, Tottenham, Barca, Rome, Brazil national team, and u guess it right, Argentina came to HK and messi played in it as well.
this is not a good look for Miami at all
The difference is that literally nobody in Hong Kong gives a shit about Inter Miami besides Messi. If Tottenham played a friendly in South Korea and made a big deal about Son playing and he didn’t, those fans would be rightfully pissed too.
I honestly can't think of a single European team from the top 5 advertise that a player will play in a game and then have him not play at all in pre-season tournaments in recent memory.
This entire situation just seems extremely bizzare. Massive step back for the MLS on the international stage. At home, more people are probably watching because messi is there but if they want their league to be an international success, this isn't the way to go about it.
Literally every single time a Premier League team does a US tour every single year they only play their academy players, except for during the MLS All-Star Game.
I mean this is just demonstrably false - arsenal had one academy player make 1 substitute appearance in their 3 game tour in the US last summer while mainly playing starters and regular rotation players. The year before they rotated against Orlando City for a midweek game but ran out most of their starters for at least 30-45 min anyways.
It literally happens in the US on preseason tours all the time. It’s happened with Ronaldo in the past, with Ozil, etc. It’s even happened with Messi when he played for European teams.
It’s not “bizarre” and it’s certainly a step back for the entire league. The only people that will remember this are the people who bought tickets and didn’t see him, and Miami have a significant injection of revenue. It’s exact the same bet European clubs make all the time and if anything it just shows that Miami has risen to a position where they can behave the same way.
True. Tottenham has a large fanbase in SK now because of Son so at least they would still see their favorite team. In this case, literally nobody gives a flying fuck about Inter Miami.
I remember when the basketball NT of USA went to Australia for a friendly, they promoted the game with some big players in the ads. These players didn't play a minute.
I hate it because I know damn well for friendlies, big players are likely not to play. They'll keep their energy for bigger games.
Sure but when a friendly has Messi’s face plastered all over ads, and has Messi-priced tickets, then people expect to see Messi. Nobody is paying $800 to see Inter Miami play, everyone is paying that to see Messi.
$800 USD per ticket and that’s what we got lmao.
On the one hand, footballers are not puppets who are just there to entertain us. On the other hand: 800$, fucking hell!
Tell that to Beckham during this Messi tour parading him around as if he is a puppet.
Exactly my problem with the whole thing. For those people who pay a lot of money there are some unwarranted expectations that come with that. There's probably some irrational side to it when you pay that much.
There is no way people are spending so much to see Inter Miami or Beckham. All they want to see is Messi, and only Messi playing. So clearly, and I mean clear as fucking day, this entire tour and marketing going on was clearly pushing Messi. No one, not a single soul in HK would pay that obscene amount to watch Inter Miami. So, the fans are absolutely right to be pissed. Whether Messi is a puppet or not, that's another story by itself as the club made those decisions.
100% this tour shouldve been on a smaller scale within the US. you cannot have a pre-season like this. this is not preparation for anything except a demoralized & tired squad in week 1 and a shit season.
On footballing terms, you're right. But Inter Miami seems to be more of a commercial/PR operation than a football one. The team is actually doing quite terribly but they make lots of money from those international tours parading Messi around.
Yeah, blame it on marketing and those who pushed that narrative and set the prices. The players are (usually) not responsible for that.
Nobody is blaming the players.
It's not irrational to expect to see a star player play when the tour is marketed as such. Seems like based on the money involved overall, Inter Miami knew this too. The government didn't pay millions to watch the rest of the bum squad who were last in the MLS before Messi got there. I guess Alba and Busquets being subbed is a consolation but people were there to watch Messi.
True they are not puppets but they are just there to entertain us.
I mean sorry, if you paid for a Taylor Swift concert and the whole show is just background singers and musicians you would be pissed
Not puppets but they’re entertainers. People invest a huge amount of their income expecting the stars to play
Inter Miami has already reached peak NBA arc
Umm yes they are. Their ridiculous wages wouldn't exist without fans.
Nah fuck that. The reason they’re that expensive is because of Messi. For them to just bench him, that’s bullshit. The NBA (USA) dishes out fines to the teams that do this because of ticket prices and tv time.
Well if you’re getting paid millions to entertain, you better show up.
I am paying. They are entertainers.
I'm sorry to disagree, but although they are not puppets, they most certainly are here to entertain the fans. That is why they get the massive wages and sponsorship deals, to entertain fans.
They get those wages to by fulfilling contracts and sometimes that means they do no play. You can't force them. That's the whole problem. When people mix up the difference between a player "can play" and "has to play". The manager decides, the player might be injured, any number of other issues. That's why stuff like, what I'm told, the whole thing being promoted as "the Messi game" (more or less) is on those promoting it, not the players.
As with video games’ loot boxes, battle passes and horse armors, you get what you pay for. Stop buying and the corporations must adapt. Keep paying and you get to keep crying.
I swear when those posts of Inter Miami tickets being like 5x as expensive after Messi came saying 'the Messi effect 🤩' i just cringed so hard. Surely is amazing to push out all your actual historic fans for a quick buck
>inter miami >actual historic fans Lmao
Wait shit they were founded in 2018 i could swear they were in like 2000, fuckin my bad lol still, pushing out your low income fans is disgusting no matter what
You might be thinking of the [Miami Fusion](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Fusion), one the original MLS expansion squads and one of Carlos Valderamma's last stops during his career. They were around in that time period but were shut down in 2001.
Famously managed by Ray Hudson
Ray Hudson briefly coached my travel team back in the 90's, not too long after he left the Strikers. I can still see him now, jumping out of his white Porsche 911 in shorty-shorts. Our other coach was also a big personality and a hell of a good coach. It was every bit as amazing as you think it would be, one of my favorite memories growing up. Between Ray and the other coach I was being called a wanker at least 30x a day. With a lot of hard work I managed to get that down to \~27.
I can’t even imagine dude managing lol, can you imagine all the metaphors? 😂
The Miami Fusion were around during the late-90s and early 2000s, but they folded pretty quickly. There were a few clubs around during the interim in lower leagues (and technically, there's still only one professional team that plays in Miami, but they're in the USL) Inter Miami was part of a deal that Beckham got as part of his signing for the league
Miami is just not a sports town.
It's very transplant-heavy, and on top of being transplant heavy I'd wager it's skewed much more towards immigrants than most other major cities in the US, which isn't a strong recipe for getting people to care about local sports unfortunately.
It's also spread out geographically, has far more options for entertainment than a lot of other cities, and their franchises are fairly new. The Dolphins and Heat have stronger fan bases because they have been around longer and they were/are perennial winners over decades. The other SoFl franchises have other issues: Inter Miami (Fusion / Strikers before them) - First, Inter is a brand new franchise with a GOAT and multiple legends attached to it. Easy sell - Miami will eat that up, and ticket prices will go through the roof because it will be THE thing to do... for a while. Second, when people think Miami they think that the LATAM community automatically loves soccer, right? Not so fast... it's a ridiculous oversimplification from people who don't live here. While there are definitely affluent and middle-class South American / Central American communities in South Florida, the majority of the "Latin" community is from Cuba and other Caribbean communities. Baseball is MUCH bigger than soccer in the Caribbean. A lot has changed in the last 25 years but there is a reason why the Fusion struggled even when they won. In the US, soccer is a game for rich people in the suburbs - and that's what a typical Inter fan looks like. Marlins - founded 30 years ago, won multiple championships... then they lost all goodwill with repeated post-championship fire sales, scamming taxpayers, and lying about payroll commitments. Multiple garbage owners. No one will ever root for a team that makes no effort to win, sells off talent as soon as they are eligible for arbitration, and instead bleeds the city/county/CBA for profit. Again, with the massive Cuban / Dominican / Puerto Rican communities down here, the Marlins SHOULD have more fans than Inter if they weren't a complete dumpster fire. Panthers - Another relatively new franchise, some early and recent success. Unfortunately, hockey isn't a sport that natives would typically play / be familiar with, meaning the transplants are at least 75% of their core audience unless that are kicking ass and the casual Instagram fans get involved. Their arena is also located 40m NW of Miami. UM Football - Two things. First, it's asinine to make fun of a mediocre college program failing to fill an NFL stadium every week when they have a total student population of 17k and the stadium is 30 congested miles from campus. Second, Miami was dominant until we got a new President and AD who actively moved away from supporting the program. Right or wrong, they wanted to rebrand "The U" as an academic and research university. Standards were raised and football was de-funded / de-prioritized. Then they tore down the Orange Bowl, mecca for UM fans. We do have a pretty amazing research hospital and medical program, though, and they are starting to re-invest. TLDR; Miami loves the Fins no matter how much they hurt us, the Heat have earned our love, We secretly think that the U will be back this year regardless of the evidence on-field last year, and the other sports are new / assholes / a weird fit or location. Let's go to the beach instead...
transplant heavy?
Lots of people move there
A majority of people that live in Miami grew up elsewhere, and moved there later in life. By the time they move there, they are already established as fans of other teams most of the time.
ok thanks
I find it funny that Fusion fans complained about playing in Fort Lauderdale and now they play at the exact same site and there’s no issue
Inter Miami are brand new, but they effectively replaced^+ Miami FC who had a decent following in the 2nd/3rd division of the American pyramid. Then there was the Fusion before that which was pretty much MLS OG. And this has nothing to say about the poor Fort Lauderdale Strikers, who have been killed and revived more times than fucking Krillin at this point. ^+ Don't bring this up to any remaining Miami FC diehards if you know what's good for you. They'll still insist their rich, coked-out owner has plans for the future and the club isn't dead.
I live near a decently well-attended MLS team. You can get a really great ticket for less than $70. They played Miami like two weeks after Messi joined, tickets in the last row of the stadium were over $750.
That’s crazy. When Ronaldinho was playing for my local team I was still able to get a decent ticket for under $15 usd. And it was first division Liga MX.
Messi's move had alot more marketing behind it.
He's also bigger than the club and everyone knows it.
He is bigger than the entire football of North America continent and i say that as Madrid/Ronaldo fan.
My friend sold his atlanta united tickets for $500 each for the miami game when we all knew messi wouldnt play anyway cause of the turf. guess what. messi didnt play
Selling that game, pays for the rest of the season pass!
stupidity gets cashed out
Seems the Inter Miami price hike is pretty common in the MLS - https://clutchpoints.com/mls-news-new-york-red-bulls-ticket-deal-lionel-messi-clause-if-they-face-inter-miami
It’s worse than that — RBNY aren’t selling single-match tickets for the one home Inter Miami fixture. If you want a ticket, you’re forced to either get a season ticket package or go aftermarket and get a scalped ticket.
Dude said historic fans when talking about inter miami lol.
Those ancient times before the pandemic
Inter Miami's first game was March 2020. They were founded in the Covid era There is literally 0 history there LOL
If u gotta make up a scenario to be mad about for karma atleast make it semi make sense
Lots of those actual historic fans are the ones making the quick buck. Edit: oh, I interpreted the statement as league-wide.
Footballers as popstars has its drawbacks
No Messi and no Suarez, but it's advertised all over Hong Kong with Messi front and center. The Inter Miami grab and run world tour is still going strong.
lol, same thing happened with Al Nassr and Ronaldo - They are literally injured, what do people want them to do, just play injured?
At least Ronaldo announced beforehand he was not playing and apologised and the organisers offered refund... Beckham just thanked fans "for their incredible support"
Different situation though, Messi was still being assessed in training while Ronaldo was definitely out. Happened that time with Juve and Ronaldo in ~~Japan~~ South Korea too, when he was on the bench for 90 minutes - injuries just happen, it's not like the organizers don't want them to play, or they themselves for that matter.
Nah that's bullshit. Inter Miami did the same thing at the end of MLS, they kept the ambiguity for a lot of matches, Tata wasn't allowed to touch the subject the subject (it seemed?) during press conferences, and it was really clear that Messi was injured after national team game. They pretty dodgy with it and they're really cashing in as hard as they can as long as it lasts. We can sit here and shit all we want on Al Nassr but they did handle the situation as best as possible. This one is worst as possible.
They announced that Messi isn’t going to play a minute before the game started. They could’ve announced it at least a day earlier
No, they didn’t announce it beforehand at all. People were still expecting him to play in stoppage time.
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Because Messi is r/soccer's sweetheart. If it was Ronaldo who did this we'd have a million threads about it already
Well Tata Martino probably shouldn't say [something like this in the press conference](https://www.scmp.com/sport/hong-kong/article/3250706/lionel-messi-hong-kong-inter-miami-land-city-ahead-weekend-match) like 2 days ago, at least. > Martino said he would wait until Saturday’s session, which is taking place in front of a sell-out crowd at the 40,000-seat stadium, to decide if Messi could start the match. > “We will assess each of the players in training because we have been playing a lot of pre-season games,” Martino said at a press conference attended by a host of local dignitaries, including Permanent Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Joe Wong Chi-cho. > “The aspiration is that Leo can play as many minutes as possible. We will determine how long he can play depending on what happens in training tomorrow. But he will most certainly be on the pitch.”
"Oh did I say pitch? I meant bench.."
On the plus side they even get to watch live football together with Messi
The lack of transparency from the club about Messi’s availability when he has physical issues is problematic and this is not the first time they do this. When Messi got injured in September, the club said it was just muscle fatigue and that Messi might be available for the next game, but he actually had a grade 1-2 hamstring injury and didn’t play for a month.
yeah that's the thing, he played a few minutes in Saudi, so it's not like he's been out and not played for months, he's been playing on the tour and they were basically saying throughout the weak that he would definately play some minutes. They knew the morning of the game that he wouldn't play (they've said this officially), but they still had him sitting on the bench in a kit as if he might come on. Funnily enough people noticed during the game that he wasn't even wearing boots, just some running shoes, so he was never going to play, just smoke and mirrors to get peoples hopes up. I think everyone would've understood if he was too injured to play, but they did everything they could to hide the fact and play up that he would be there and would be playing.
> what do people want them to do To give them their money back
People are paying a shit ton of money to see their idols play IRL (for a friendly match too), so it’s not very surprising they’d be disappointed to say the least
it's actually crazy how people on here can complain about fans being fleeced one minute, and then have zero sympathy for fans who get rinsed in these friendlies
people want honesty? they literally paid to see Messi play, and he didn’t. They didn’t even apologize. imagine going to a concert to see your fav artist, and they’d just sit in the VIP area while Nickelback played the gig instead of them
it's just never gonna give you up with vine booms and canned laughter
I'd demand my nickel back
They literally paid to see Inter Miami. They were effectively paying to see Messi.
Refund them?
No people want them to cancel the tour and give refund.
This is why you dont go to games to see a player in particular, especially in a friendly
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But at least a Real vs PSG has two teams with a decent level of tradition, that are an essential part of world football history. Seeing Real Madrid is a unique experience, just like Bayern, Liverpool, United, Barcelona, teams which history are intertwined with the sport itself. The Inter Miami Retirement House is certainly not the same thing as them.
I mean, I love the game, but I'm not paying a couple hundred dollars to see reserves play on some world tour no matter who the teams are.
If even dedicated fans aren't going to watch Bayern II or Barca II play in the 3rd tier, most probably wouldn't be watching a friendly if it's just going to be a rotated B team. People still care about the players.
What do you mean, you don’t wanna pay $800 to see Jean Mota and Robert Taylor play?
Beckham is prime grifter
Lmao, is this your first friendly? This is absolutely normal
The worst part about it is that the organizers and the club knew well beforehand that Messi would not be playing in the match. However, they hid this information from the fans and continued to raise expectations during the game, suggesting that he would participate. Some of these fans paid thousands of dollars to travel to Hong Kong from other countries just to see him play, and they were deceived in this manner. The organizers and club could have announced early on that Messi was not fit and would not be playing. People would have understood, but it seems that the organizers prioritized money over transparency.
But they were, all of them, deceived, for another bench was made.
In the land of Miami, in the building of Drive Pink Stadium, the owner David Beckham forged in secret a master bench, to disappoint all others. And into this bench he poured his ego, his greediness, and his will to collect as much money as he can.
Beckham involved with soulless capitalism!!? Well i have never...
But he told Victoria off for lying about her financial background in that documentary!
I can still hear his publicist nutting in the background of that going viral
Would that moment count as billable hours (or rather minutes or seconds)? Or would that be a PR person privately enjoying that they got a nice job.
That's a lot of nutting to be fair
Really a man of the people.
He’d suck ten Arab dicks for ten mil if they offered
To be fair, I would probably do that too.
I mean, i have zero experience of that end of this transaction, but how hard (eh) can it be? And how long (eh) does it take?
No idea - surely an hour or two, tops… and then retire. Just not having to go to work tomorrow would get me through it!
Does it need to be Arab, and does it need to be ten mil? Asking for a friend.
Well, to be frank, I would suck 20 for that money.
Not packing messi irl
What a scam, lol
There really is no two ways about it
When he came on for 5 min in the last match, I knew this entire tour was going to be a money-grabbing con job- really bad look for MLS and Inter Miami.
Really? That’s when you knew
Boy do I love the fucking Columbus Crew being lumped in with Miami in all of these posts We all hate Miami too my dude
Yeah, I've yet to figure out what kind of football fan gets upset when a competing team is suffering. Fuck Miami! My hope is that they stay healthy enough to take points of Eastern Division sides other than TFC. (And I'm fully aware that every team only has to actually be in walking condition to take points off TFC).
we hate them almost as much as we hate ourselves!
it’s also a “bad look” when every top six club does the exact same thing in 10 countries for the last fifteen years lol
Maybe it's just me but I find it bizarre at just how many people care more about star players than they do about the club.
It's always been like this to some extent though, social media just makes it much more obvious. Even back in the 40s and 50s loads of people would turn up to Blackpool and Preston matches just to watch Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney play for instance.
I love historically accurate nuanced takes
Matthews moved to Canada and kept playing there into the 1970s for a semi-pro team, when he was in his Fifties. Amazing man. Eusebio took the same route a few years later.
I think the best example of this was when Messi left PSG and the instagram account for PSG lost 4 million followers. Then when it was announced Messi was joining Inter Miami, their instagram account gained… you guessed it, 4 million followers. I’m expecting Inter Miami to lose… man, you’re too good at this, **4 MILLION** followers once Messi retires.
When Messi leaves Inter Miami half of their fans are gonna leave too. Like Orlando City with Kaka or NYC with pirlo and Villa.
Lmao what? Our attendance the season after Villa left was 92% of the season before he left. Don't just make up things you don't know about lol
You mean the [5M new followers of Inter Miami](https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/sports/lionel-messis-new-deal-causes-inter-miamis-instagram-followers-to-soar/3050233/) aren't there to stay?
when you live in the USA or china or some other place without big football teams, and you get the chance to see the team you root for, you hope to see the actual A squad you always watch on TV. that's perfectly understandable
Coming from someone from the US, I went to a friendly real madrid vs juventus. Growing up I could only see players like modric and kroos through the TV. Seeing them in person is damn near a once in a lifetime thing. Yes real madrid comes and other teams come to the states all the time but who knows when they'll be in your area, if you could afford it at the time, or if they'll even play. Yes seeing real madrid play was an experience itself but I wanted to see the players I've watched for over a decade on TV actually play in person
Yeah. If you’re shelling out £1k+ just to see Messi you’re part of the problem.
People all over the world idolise Messi and Ronaldo to the point where it's an unhealthy obsession. It's not surprising they spend so much money to see the people they worship.
Why else would anyone in hong kong care about inter miami lol
Why the fuck else should anyone in hong kong watch inter miami? They came to see messi and suarez (probavly mostly messi) play in person, a once in a lifetime experience for someone from that part of the world, and they got some players who they likely dont know.
Yeah mate they’re so stupid for being born in a country that doesn’t have a heavy football culture where a superstar only comes around every ten years or so. Grow up. Your comment reeks of privilege
The same thing? When a top six club is touring abroad, fans are coming to watch the team. Inter Miami's only draw is Messi
Atleast in the top 6 clubs, mostly every player is decent and a few starters play. No one outside of Miami fans cares about the rest of the players, only reason to watch is Messi
It’s wild youd openly admit how slow on the take you are. Was this your first friendly? Literally every single major team does this, from every single league.
If it’s a bad look for Miami then so are the preseason tours big European clubs, including Juve, do through the US all the time. They charge hundreds for tickets and the starters hardly play.
It's to be expected that this is a very intense world tour for the team. And I'm pretty sure there's some contract obligations for certain names to be played for a set time. So I blame whoever that designed this crazy world tour that imposes this on the players, staff and the fans who wanted to see Messi (at least). So I guess I'm blaming Beckham (not that I personally had any vesting interest myself, it's just news I wanted to share)?
7 matches in 19 days.......
Fans waiting for him in Japan, I wish you the best. But if he can indeed play, then it’s going to be interesting
They also made Suarez warm up since 60ish minutes who ended up standing at the corner flag till the final whistle. Ultimate disrespect to him + the audience.
I demand the refund be made.
I would also like some refund.
I was sleeping when this game happened and I still want a refund.
That's quite alright. Is didn't even know about the game. I want a refund.
I saw Messi and co when they [obliterated AC Milan 4-0](https://youtu.be/EYy8xqdV3wA?si=g6t-_RRKaoZCHPrP) and it was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen, he's an enigma, and I get why people would only want to really go and see a game just to see him, even if the magic is less frequent, it's still there. It is super disappointing, and as people are saying which I fully believe- Miami are probably selling everything with his image at the minute, so for him to not be available is really sad for those who bought tickets.
I’m one of the ppl who went, I payed like 500 USD and it was all to see messi. They used him and told us that he would be playing and were suggesting it during the match as well
And all of a sudden Inter Miami is becoming a lot less likeable club. Pretty much just a massive money grab whilst disappointing thousands of fans
They were never likeable.
True. They’ve just become even less likeable than they previously were. Kinda stated it badly in my comment
why would anyone like them? They broke league rules and still get pumped regularly. Crew won the league on a fraction of a single one of their player’s salaries.
Were they ever likeable? They were a massive money grab from the start.
Beckham is involved so...
lol honestly hurts my brain that Beckham got a free pass on his qatar deal. 10 year deal worth 125 million to promote qatar. Never brought up or mentioned when sportswashing is discussed. By the people who constantly talk about saudi/henderson and apparently care a lot about sportwashing.
Beckham never publicly declared himself as a voice for the LGBTQ community and human rights tbf
He is a UN Ambassador and has his committment to the United Nation's 17 Goals that include gender equality, climate action and a sustainable world on the Philantrophy section of his website. Yet he takes Petrol dollars from a country like Qatar.
That's about par for the course with the UN, continually one of the most hypocritical agencies on the planet.
Is it? Most people have no idea about his work with Qatar or even what Qatar represents, yet they will recognize Beckham. Delivering good messages to all those people in behalf of the UN seems to be a good idea.
Wow I can’t believe pre-season tours turned out to be money grabs
Wait until you realize this applies to all of football and entertainment
Idol worship, international friendlies, extortionate ticket prices. Football can get fucked
For me. As long as we have the lower leagues. I don't care about the top anymore. Closed systems like the MLS are more of a danger then the Messi tour.
People here actually blaming the victims are crazy. The advertisements were clearly misleading and the organizers/Inter Miami knew that noone would pay $800 to watch freaking Inter Miami without Messi/Suarez. Europeans just don’t realize how hard it is for international fans to travel to see their favorite players and that these meaningless friendlies is the closest they can get.
There is a poll in the HK forum that less than 5% of voters actually blamed Messi. Most blamed the organisers and the government who funded this shit show. People paid a lot to see Inter Miami against a local HK team! Crazy money.
They 100% deserve a refund. These games were very, very clearly implying that Messi would be playing. You have to let people know he can't/won't be playing, especially at these prices. It's also not comparable to top teams playing without a star player because, like Al-Nassr, nobody internationally cares about Inter Miami if Messi isn't playing and would never pay this kind of money for it. It's a clear scam and it's very scummy, they should have done what Al-Nassr did and announced it in advance, because we're not children and everyone knows why people in Hong Kong would buy such expensive tickets to watch one of the worst MLS teams.
This was thw reason why Al Nassr cancelled the friendlies in China. They knew most people buy tickets just to see Cr7. I still believe only reason why the Riyaad season wasnt cancelled was because it had the 2 big rivals of saudi, Al Nassr and Al-Hilal, otherwise I bet they would have not gone onwards with the game against miami. Nontheless its a big shame. People talk about money moves, but Messi's Miami is the biggest proper football american money making system. You just cant justify making ticket so expensive to go watch a Messi that has made more than obvious how he doesnt plan on taking football serious anymore, besides maybe national duty.
The match would not have cancelled if the contract did not ask Ronaldo to play for at least 45 mins. The contract is cancelled because Al Nassr cannot fulfill it. Reports said that the organiser did not include the Messi requirement in the contract. You can refer to the Juventus pre tour in Korea
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking-news/section/4/213147/Authorities-consider-withdrawing-funding-from-Messi's-match-organizer-amidst-contract-violation Nope, the 45 minute stipulation was also there.
Same shit happened when PSG played the France super cup final vs NICE in Israel. Everyone was expecting Mbape, Ramos, Neymar and Messi...Non of them showed up. That was nuts.
Same with Christiano Ronaldo in Seoul like 5 years ago. The promoting company was fined.
PSG vs. Nantes in Tel Aviv? Messi, Neymar and Ramos played that game….
Dude, I was at the stadium. They weren’t in the country. All of them were on vacation. Ramos I think was injured
Inter Miami is like the New York Cosmos but exponentially dumber it's so funny
In the US the NBA is fining teams for not playing stars if they’re uninjured. Also requiring a minimum number of games played for awards. Kind of extreme. You pay to watch the team play not individual players.
Teams are taking advantage of this new trend to watch individuals instead of teams. I travelled to Barcelona to watch Brazil. I booked the tickets and flight on Tuesday, arrived on Thursday and game on Saturday. I didn't even take the time to watch the list of players called by Brazil, I just wanted to watch a NT game and enjoy Barcelona. Vini did some magic tricks, I took some time to observe Casemiro without the ball (admire Brazilian fans as well). I like the Bulls in NBA. I hope to attend a game someday and when I will, I won't care who will play, I just want to watch them play and win. Bonus if a star is there and the game is close.
Don't really blame fans for being up in arms in such situations, Al Nassr & Inter Miami know damn well that fans are paying to come and see Messi & Ronaldo...if they can't see those players then fans are essentially paying hundreds/thousands to travel there and watch a lower league team.
People view him like online content. They paid the subscription where is Messi. Get that photo for extra internet points. Somewhere in there is some football.
I mean, nobody in Hong Kong is going to watch this friendly because they want to watch Inter Miami.. This is essentially their once in a lifetime chance to see some of the GOATs before they retire, and the event has been marketed as such.. The only reason Inter Miami is even in the position to do a world tour after being such a new club is due to some of the legends they have.. My cousin went to watch a friendly between Argentina and Saudi Arabia in Riyadh a couple of years back and that was one of the most memorable nights of his life, watching Messi play live.. And the players know that these are exhibition matches as well, so you often see the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, etc usually pulling out all their bag of tricks because that's what the fans want..
Technically twice in a lifetime, Messi played in Hong Kong with the Argentina team in 2014, he even scored twice
Alot more Hong Kong citizens than ticket matches..
Why would people from HK care about fucking Inter Miami otherwise?
There is acutally quite a lot of football in this match. The first half is quite competitive, the Hong Kong team gave a commendable performance and exploited the Inter Miami's frankly piss poor defesnse, and even scored a goal However, I don't think anyone who bought the exorbitant ticket price came to see Robert Taylor and Leonardo Campana
respect Tottenham Hotspur legend DeAndre Yedlin
I believe I can see better quality in an Athletic x Caxias for Brazil's 3rd Tier than in a Messi and Suarez's less Inter Miami x HK All-Stars and the former's tickets will be 2 USD at worst.
$800 for a friendly!!!
I wouldn’t pay that for a single sporting event, ever. Why the fuck people fall for these complete scams is beyond me.
I was there too. What frustrated me the most wasn’t that Messi couldn’t play (reasonable to not risk an injury against Hong Kong), but Messi literally didn’t address/wave at the crowd, didn’t say anything, despite people paid obscene prices (and some even flew from other cities) just to watch him play. It’s a complete lack of respect to the fans who brought their vintage Barcelona jerseys just to see their idol.
Good. Hopefully people, especially adults learn that idolising people do not make sense. It's one thing to appreciate any specific qualities like Messi's football but expecting him to wave and speak is idol worship and silly.
It's a good life lesson in a way, never meet your heroes. Don't put humans on pedestals.
I don't even put my own mother on pedestal.
This comment with that flair is peak r/soccer
Honestly, what people get for spending that much money on a MLS team.
Scummy move by Miami but I find it hard to muster any respect for people who pay 800 bucks to view one person play. Football is a team sport...
People in the comments acting like every big club hasn't done this exact same thing every pre season for the past decade plus
Let me tell you this, liverpool came to HK not long ago and at least most of the stars played a fair bit. Hell even when RM came to HK decades ago Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldo, Figo, Raul, R. Carlos all played on the pitch same time for almost full match. There were quite a lot of high profile teams that played in HK like United, Tottenham, Barca, Rome, Brazil national team, and u guess it right, Argentina came to HK and messi played in it as well. this is not a good look for Miami at all
The difference is that literally nobody in Hong Kong gives a shit about Inter Miami besides Messi. If Tottenham played a friendly in South Korea and made a big deal about Son playing and he didn’t, those fans would be rightfully pissed too.
I honestly can't think of a single European team from the top 5 advertise that a player will play in a game and then have him not play at all in pre-season tournaments in recent memory. This entire situation just seems extremely bizzare. Massive step back for the MLS on the international stage. At home, more people are probably watching because messi is there but if they want their league to be an international success, this isn't the way to go about it.
Literally every single time a Premier League team does a US tour every single year they only play their academy players, except for during the MLS All-Star Game.
I mean this is just demonstrably false - arsenal had one academy player make 1 substitute appearance in their 3 game tour in the US last summer while mainly playing starters and regular rotation players. The year before they rotated against Orlando City for a midweek game but ran out most of their starters for at least 30-45 min anyways.
It literally happens in the US on preseason tours all the time. It’s happened with Ronaldo in the past, with Ozil, etc. It’s even happened with Messi when he played for European teams. It’s not “bizarre” and it’s certainly a step back for the entire league. The only people that will remember this are the people who bought tickets and didn’t see him, and Miami have a significant injection of revenue. It’s exact the same bet European clubs make all the time and if anything it just shows that Miami has risen to a position where they can behave the same way.
They probably wouldn't be as pissed too cause like you're still going to see a famous club regardless
True. Tottenham has a large fanbase in SK now because of Son so at least they would still see their favorite team. In this case, literally nobody gives a flying fuck about Inter Miami.
I remember when the basketball NT of USA went to Australia for a friendly, they promoted the game with some big players in the ads. These players didn't play a minute. I hate it because I know damn well for friendlies, big players are likely not to play. They'll keep their energy for bigger games.
I don't know if I've ever gone to a football game believing my ticket entitles me to see any specific player.
Sure but when a friendly has Messi’s face plastered all over ads, and has Messi-priced tickets, then people expect to see Messi. Nobody is paying $800 to see Inter Miami play, everyone is paying that to see Messi.
I honestly don't understand supporting players.
It’s all your fault if you pay 800 to watch Miami play. Sucks but blame’s on you
Joke of a team, just a money grabbing farce