Following the controversy involving Lionel Messi in Hong Kong, the Chinese government decided to postpone the Argentina national team’s March friendly matches. Rather, the Argentines will play in Philadelphia on March 22 against El Salvador and in Los Angeles on March 26 against Nigeria.
In March, the Argentina national football team will go to the United States for two friendlies. This was declared by the National Football Association.
The Argentines’ next games are scheduled for March 22 in Philadelphia against El Salvador and March 26 in Los Angeles against Nigeria.
The March international matches between the Argentina national team and Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria were postponed due to the Lionel Messi scandal.
When the squad of stars from the Hong Kong Championship played Inter Miami in a friendly match on February 4 (4:1), the spectators jeered at the team captain and requested a refund for their tickets. Thirty thousand people watched the match in Hong Kong, with some fans paying nearly HK$5,000 ($640) for each ticket. Following this, the Argentina national team’s friendlies were called off by the Chinese government.
Messi himself earlier this week published a two-minute video message to fans on the Chinese social network Weibo, in which he denied the political motive behind missing the friendly match in Hong Kong. The footballer said that he did not play in Hong Kong on February 4 only because of the risk of aggravating his hip injury.
