Messi organisers give up on HK$16m grant
Organisers who brought eight-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi to Hong Kong but failed to get him on the pitch said they will withdraw their application for a HK$16 million government grant for the event. At a press briefing a day after Messi’s Inter Miami were booed during their exhibition football match with a local league side at the Hong Kong Stadium, Tatler Asia chairman and CEO Michel Lamunière said they deeply regret the "disappointing ending to what was an exciting occasion" and have decided to officially withdraw the application for the "M" mark event status and the sponsorship that came with it. Lamunière said Tatler Asia were led to believe that Messi would play during the exhibition match. "On Sunday, before kick-off, the official team sheet, a list of the players who are available to play in the game, which was submitted by the Inter Miami CF team and signed by the head coach Gerardo Martino, showed Lionel Messi and Luis Suárez as substitutes and therefore fit to play. Accordingly, Tatler Asia had every expectation that both would play," he said. "At half-time, when it was communicated by the Inter Miami CF club management that there would be no possibility for Messi to play in the game due to an injury, Tatler Asia immediately informed the government.  "Tatler Asia subsequently spent the second half urging the Inter Miami CF leadership to instruct Messi to address the fans, to no avail." Tatler Asia gave the statement without taking questions from the media. The government earlier said that it had also called for Messi to at least lift the trophy or explain to the thousands of fans there to see him why he hadn't played. Martino said after the match that Messi had been suffering from muscle inflammation for several days and wasn't fit to play.