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HK is definitely a part of China. The Brits colonized HK in the mid 1800's, but was it 'handed back' to China in 1997... as such, HK has been a "Special Administrative Region" of China since 1997... meaning we have our own laws and rules, separate from the Mainland.
Not gonna get into the politics of it, cuz that an entirely different convo.
There's a lot more context to this Messi saga than what some of the headlines were saying... a lot of "HK fans angry that injured Messi didn't play" narratives, which makes the HK fans sound unreasonable. I was taking to my friend about this, so I'll just copypasta it here...
A bit of context on the timeline...
Inter Miami arrived on Friday from Saudi... Messi didn't look particularly happy or friendly, but maybe he was just tired after getting off the plane... whatever... fine. They do a very brief photo sesh at the airport and then they promptly leave.
Saturday... they have a scheduled open training session at the stadium where they sold tix for... 30k show up to watch Miami train. Messi comes out last, but we had already known he might have been carrying an injury cuz he only played 7 mins in Saudi. He ended up not training with the team and just did some stretches on the side and played a bit of tap-passes with some local academy kids. At this point, the public was just thinking maybe he was saving himself for Sunday's game.
Come Sunday, we still don't know if he's on the team or not... but before kickoff, Miami Tweets their teamsheet... no Messi... not even on the bench. The entire 40k crowed (some of them paid US$600 for a ticket) chant his name during the entire match, but he just sat there on the bench in his tracksuit and sneakers (not boots). The match ends and Miami wins... the gov and event organizers asked Miami to send Messi out to raise the trophy... they refused. They asked Miami to send Messi out with a mic to address the crowd... they refused. Instead, they sent Becks out there... and was showered with boos. You know things are bad when they boo Becks... whom they adore here.
They quietly leave for Japan the next day, much to the anger of HK... and to an extent, China as a lot of Mainland fans made the trip over (some traveled 12hrs apparently) to see him. Naturally, they felt very disappointed and angry cuz there was no public explanation or anything. The coach only gave a brief comment to the press. I think had Messi came out to talk to the crowd, walked around the pitch for some pics and whatnot, kicked a few balls into the stands... showed some appreciation to the crowd... I think it would have made things a bit less ugly. At least it would have shown a bit of good will towards his fans. It would have taken 20mins or so... but they refused. Dunno why.
Fast forward to Wednesday, Messi had a full presser in Japan, trained with the team there... and ended up playing over 30mins vs Vissel Kobe, while Suarez (also very popular here) played 60min. To go from barely doing any activity... to training and playing 30mins within a span of 3 days... you can understand why the fans were a bit sus. Naturally, this enraged the fans even more.
Overall, I felt this mess was down to Inter Miami, Messi and the HK-based event organizers. The HK fans are reasonable enough to know that injuries can happen, but it was the way it was handled by Miami... they danced around whether Messi would play and there was no clarity to the fans. Had they been a bit more up-front with the fans and shown a bit more respect to the paying crowd, I think it would have helped with the situation.
Inter Miami arrived on Friday from Saudi... Messi didn't look particularly happy or friendly, but maybe he was just tired after getting off the plane... whatever... fine. They do a very brief photo sesh at the airport and then they promptly leave.
Saturday... they have a scheduled open training session at the stadium where they sold tix for... 30k show up to watch Miami train. Messi comes out last, but we had already known he might have been carrying an injury cuz he only played 7 mins in Saudi. He ended up not training with the team and just did some stretches on the side and played a bit of tap-passes with some local academy kids. At this point, the public was just thinking maybe he was saving himself for Sunday's game.
Come Sunday, we still don't know if he's on the team or not... but before kickoff, Miami Tweets their teamsheet... no Messi... not even on the bench. The entire 40k crowed (some of them paid US$600 for a ticket) chant his name during the entire match, but he just sat there on the bench in his tracksuit and sneakers (not boots). The match ends and Miami wins... the gov and event organizers asked Miami to send Messi out to raise the trophy... they refused. They asked Miami to send Messi out with a mic to address the crowd... they refused. Instead, they sent Becks out there... and was showered with boos. You know things are bad when they boo Becks... whom they adore here.
They quietly leave for Japan the next day, much to the anger of HK... and to an extent, China as a lot of Mainland fans made the trip over (some traveled 12hrs apparently) to see him. Naturally, they felt very disappointed and angry cuz there was no public explanation or anything. The coach only gave a brief comment to the press. I think had Messi came out to talk to the crowd, walked around the pitch for some pics and whatnot, kicked a few balls into the stands... showed some appreciation to the crowd... I think it would have made things a bit less ugly. At least it would have shown a bit of good will towards his fans. It would have taken 20mins or so... but they refused. Dunno why.
Fast forward to Wednesday, Messi had a full presser in Japan, trained with the team there... and ended up playing over 30mins vs Vissel Kobe, while Suarez (also very popular here) played 60min. To go from barely doing any activity... to training and playing 30mins within a span of 3 days... you can understand why the fans were a bit sus. Naturally, this enraged the fans even more.
Overall, I felt this mess was down to Inter Miami, Messi and the HK-based event organizers. The HK fans are reasonable enough to know that injuries can happen, but it was the way it was handled by Miami... they danced around whether Messi would play and there was no clarity to the fans. Had they been a bit more up-front with the fans and shown a bit more respect to the paying crowd, I think it would have helped with the situation.
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