FUMING fans have been offered a 50 per cent refund after they paid £500 to watch Lionel Messi, who didn’t even play in a game supposedly exhibiting the Argentine.
Messi stayed on the bench for the whole of Inter Miami’s exhibition match against a local team in Hong Kong, due to a groin injury.
Fans became were hysterical when it became clear Messi would not play, waving signs that read ‘No Messi, refund please’, and booing over David Beckham’s post match speech.
Apologies have since gushed from the event’s organisers, Conde Nast’s Tatler Asia, who said: “We will not escape our responsibility as organisers.
“That is why Tatler Asia will offer all those who purchased match-day tickets from the official channels a 50% refund.”
The mortified Tatler Asia had already said on Instagram they regretted that their event had become ‘the source of great heartbreak’.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
They also iterated they had tried to persuade Inter Miami to warn spectators of Messi’s impending no-show and were upset by ‘the seeming lack of respect shown to the crowd.’
To add salt to the wound, Messi played 30 minutes in a match just a few days later in Tokyo.
Tatler Asia was not happy about this either, admitting: “The fact that Messie […] played in Japan on 7 February feels like another slap in the face.”
The debacle even reached the ears of the Hong Kong government, prompting them to issue an official statement.
Most read in Football
HOW TO GET FREE BETS ON FOOTBALL
It read: “The government hopes the organisers and teams can provide reasonable explanations.”
Messi then took to the Chinese social media platform Weibo apologise in Spanish and Chinese, saying: “Anyone who knows me knows that I always want to play.
“Especially in these games where we travel so far and people are excited to see our games.
“Hopefully we can come back and play a game in Hong Kong.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
