Argentine star Lionel Messi did not play in a commercial match in Hong Kong, China, citing injury, after which the public questioned his arrogant attitude and discussed whether the commercial match involved commercial fraud. Can you be held accountable from a legal perspective?
Hello everyone, I'm Lao Liang, who pays attention to news and law.
This incident is more controversial, because some netizens are not fans and may not understand what is going on, and the laws of Hong Kong, China are still a little different from the laws of the mainland, and here is also to share some information for your reference, so that friends can understand this matter.
When I was in school, my favorite international star was actually the now retired Italian player - Alessandro del Piero, and of course the later players were also very good, but I was not so obsessed with it, so I admit that Messi is very good, but in fact, there is no filter. Also, I don't bother with *** topics.
Perhaps many non-fans' impression of Messi is mainly when he won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, when he played at Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1, and in 2023, Messi left the top five leagues and joined Miami International Club in the United States.
This club also has to be introduced, the source is that England star David Beckham left the top five leagues that year, joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in the United States, and reached an agreement with the MLS to get $25 million to buy the rights to expand the team.
By 2014, he announced that he would form a team in Miami, and by 2018, he officially established Miami International, and SoftBank's Masayoshi Son was once a shareholder of the club, but later withdrew.
There are rumors on the Internet that Messi owns the club's shares, some say 20%, some say 35%, this rumor did exist during Messi's transfer, and even included that the MLS will treat Beckham the same as it did to authorize Messi to expand the right to expand the equity of a club, but the follow-up only broke the news that Messi moved to Miami International through a free transfer, although there is speculation that he may get a small number of options after retiring, but there is no definite news so far.
According to public information, the two local entrepreneurs in Miami, the MAS brothers, are the majority shareholders, and so far there is no Messi in the owners of the club's official website, and Beckham is the co-owner.
The club officially played the American Professional League in 2020, and Messi was a very topical topic after joining, and last year it reached the 1 4 finals of the Cup, and the league ranking is average, in addition to Messi, there are Suarez, Alba, Busquets and several Barcelona veterans, some people jokingly call it the Barcelona U40 second team.
The nature of the competition in Hong Kong this time is a simple commercial competition, and the Hong Kong Large-scale Sports Events Committee has rated M brand activities, which is actually not simple, because this brand plan is to support sustainable sports events, you must know that other M brand activities include the Hong Kong Open Tennis Championships, the Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships, and the World Women's Volleyball League Hong Kong, just by virtue of the results of Miami International and the nature of friendly matches, if there is no Messi, I think it will be difficult.
Regarding the arrangement of this competition, I can find relatively early information at present, which is that on December 8, 2023, the official website of Miami International announced that it will come to Hong Kong to play, and this text part does not mention Messi, but this poster** is obviously Messi.
But here I also want to explain to non-fans that player injuries are a common situation, and it is usually impossible to predict, sometimes there is no drastic action, maybe this person is strained while running during training, there is a certain randomness. Not only club games, but also national team games due to injury, and football games usually have a long contract time, and theoretically speaking, there is indeed a possibility that Messi will not play from the beginning.
This is generally reflected in the contract, but I don't know how the specific contract terms were signed, only that it was originally agreed that Messi would play at least 45 minutes, but there were health problems that could not be missed.
There is a detail that many people may not have noticed, the organizer of the competition is "Tatler Asia", a magazine with its Asian headquarters registered in Hong Kong, China, but it has never held sports competitions, so I don't know why it hosts, and there are also people who suspect that they lack experience in hosting large-scale competitions.
In fact, Messi's physical condition is not completely without warning, and Messi still started the match against the Saudi Riyadh Crescent on January 29, contributing one goal and one assist.
As a result, in the victory match against Riyadh on February 2, Messi only came on in the 83rd minute. Later, when he responded in Japan, he also said that he was injured on January 29, and this statement will have a great impact on the subsequent legal disputes.
But Inter Miami had not said that Messi could not play until February 3 during the training event in Hong Kong, and Messi still came off the field to interact with the fans, and almost everyone was looking forward to his appearance the next day.
By the time of the game on February 4, Messi did not participate in the warm-up at the beginning, and the fans did not feel that there was a problem at this time, and everyone was quite excited to see him on the occasional big screen, in fact, it was very intriguing to see that he was not wearing shoes at that time.
Before he played in the second half, many fans began to be dissatisfied at this time, and gradually there were boos, and then some people left the stadium directly, and some people shouted back, which means to refund the ticket.
But until the end, Messi and Suarez did not appear, and Messi bypassed the chief executive after the game, which caused controversy in the future. Someone threw his shirt at him as he left the pitch.
After the game, many fans also expressed their dissatisfaction, thinking that they were coming for prunes, but they were deceived.
Regarding why Messi did not play, Yang Yunxiong, director of the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Special Administrative Region **, said that before the start of the game, the organizer still confirmed that Messi could appear, and it was also found in the second half that he did not start to communicate, but 10 minutes before the end of the game, the organizer confirmed again that Messi was not on it, and the communication wanted to do some remedial activities without success.
In this regard, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee expressed great disappointment.
And the organizer, the fashion magazine, held a press conference and read out a statement, saying that Messi was still in the list submitted by the head coach the day before, and he also reported the situation to the SAR after discovering that Messi was not available, and asked for communication to let Messi speak, but it was unsuccessful.
Now announced that it has decided to withdraw the M brand plan and **16 million yuan funding application, which was originally a matching grant of 15 million yuan and a field assistance fund of 100 net yuan, then this game will not have Messi, and it will definitely not be given, and it will be useless if they don't withdraw.
Inter Miami sent a response that actually confirmed the claims made by the organizers and the tourism board that the two players could have been excluded before the game, but waited until the last minute with the utmost sincerity, which further underscores our commitment to do everything possible. In the end, both players were deemed unavailable because the medical staff said it would pose a threat to their health.
I don't understand why you waited until the last minute, why did you do everything possible, how do I think this is messing everything up? I don't know if there is such a rule in the fashion industry.
Now many people will cite the example of Cristiano Ronaldo this time, he was supposed to participate in the Riyadh victory match in Shenzhen on January 24. On January 19, the club announced that he was still on the list, and as a result, foreign media reported that Ronaldo was injured and may be out for two weeks due to injury.
As a result, it was announced on the 23rd that he would not be able to play due to a calf muscle strain, and now it is confirmed that the game will be postponed.
But what is not quite the same between these two things is that although Ronaldo also announced that he could not go on until the day before the game, he apologized and refunded the ticket, and the organizer will also compensate for the actual air ticket and hotel expenses, which is not very happy, but the result is unsatisfactory, and then Ronaldo did miss the game with Messi.
But the operation of Miami International is to finish the game without Messi playing, the latest news is that 50% of the money can be refunded, and there is no news about the machine wine for the time being, so whether it can reach a settlement with consumers is not clear for the time being, because there are many people who spend much more than the ticket price.
So many fans expressed dissatisfaction with the club's failure to report Messi in a timely manner, and Messi's attitude towards Chinese fans, and Huo Qigang, vice president of the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee, once issued a question.
And in this process, Messi has not spoken out in Hong Kong, and it was not until Japan responded to why he didn't play, so many Chinese fans were not very satisfied, and joked that your mouth is also hurt? How do you get good as soon as you get to the Japanese mouth?
And here Messi also responded that he was not injured in Hong Kong, but he felt unwell, and this statement was also questioned.
The last straw was that Messi appeared in the game in Japan, and Japanese fans don't know if they shouted Leo yelling, anyway, now many people are questioning his speed of recovery, especially the ability to speak.
Before the debut, Messi's Weibo post once again explained that because of a groin injury, the comments were divided into two opinions, supporting Messi's opinion that it was no problem, but some people did not agree with Messi's statement, especially the positioning of this post is still displayed in Sichuan.
Later, Huo Qigang posted again, saying that he didn't want to comment too much on the team's performance and arrangement in Japan, but this kind of performance is undoubtedly rubbing salt into the wounds of Hong Kong fans.
My personal opinion, in fact, the club and Messi himself have many opportunities to make things not develop so ugly, before, during, and after the game, they can save their reputation through some very simple practices, such as interacting with fans, and now this way of operation, in a common saying in Beijing: tear down one by one, as for who is shameless and who is tearing, whether it is the club or Messi himself, I will not make a judgment.
So many people pay attention to the follow-up legal prosecution part, in fact, it can be seen here that Messi said that he was injured on January 29, which is very critical, if he has already had an injury, then the situation will be different, and now the reason why he did not play can only be attributed to the ticket being sold.
Then this matter is actually divided into two groups of legal relationships. One is between the fans who buy tickets and the organizer, and the other is between the organizer and the club, and there is no information about the dispute between the club and the players for the time being.
The organizer and the club here, mainly depends on how the contract between the two parties is agreed, because the health factors of football games are often not too specific, it is unlikely to be divided into serious injuries and minor injuries like our injury identification, and then minor injuries can be on, then it depends on whether it is said that Messi will not play because of injury, whether there are compensation measures, or there are other alternatives, if not, the agreement is unclear, it is the organizer's own problem, if there is but the club has not implemented, That's the club's default.
But this is between the organizer and the club, and it will be seen whether they will negotiate or litigate with each other in the future, which has nothing to do with ordinary fans.
As for the fans, Fok also mentioned that the Consumer Council has received hundreds of complaints, and the number has risen to thousands at present.
However, this consumer council is not a law enforcement agency, similar to our consumer protection committee, usually can only say mediation, in addition to providing litigation support, if the business ignores them, this has to be sued by the consumer himself.
According to the report of Hong Kong**, at present, Hong Kong** has received a number of reports and has been transferred to the customs for follow-up.
It should be explained here that there is no Market Supervision and Administration Bureau in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Customs can investigate false trade descriptions in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, which may be found to be a crime and sentenced to up to 5 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 yuan.
This kind of false description case has also been reported before, for example, there are mainland tourists to buy things, the other party is a catty, in fact, two, the result is finally sued to the court through the Hong Kong Customs, the judgment "apply the false commodity description to the goods", in addition to repaying the money, the clerk was sentenced to half a year in prison, compensation of 38,800 Hong Kong dollars, this case is the result of the Hong Kong Customs law enforcement.
Now the fan police section will be turned around, indicating that ** does not think that this is a criminal fraud, or it is handed over to the customs for processing according to the judgment of similar false commodity descriptions.
However, whether this matter violates the "Trade Description Regulations" is actually controversial, one of the points is that the organizer previously advertised that Messi would participate in the game, and the problem is that if strictly speaking, Messi entered the substitute list, and also participated in the game.
In other words, playing in a game is not the same as playing football.
This point of view was not invented by me, Hong Kong ** interviewed a local lawyer, and a lawyer Chen Baihao put forward this point of view, so can you find the organizer now that Messi must play the publicity? If not, it is difficult to determine that this is a false trade description.
In addition, the lawyer also explained that according to the terms of the ticket, the organizer and the team have the right to change the roster at any time, and this ticket is for a football match, and now he has indeed watched a football game, so he believes that it is difficult to hold the organizer accountable.
As for the ** level, although it provides a lot of support for the holding of the game, the legal relationship reached by fans with the purchase of tickets is not related to **, so there is no way to recover from **. It's easier for me to understand.
Of course, his view is also controversial, and some Hong Kong lawyers agree with the Hong Kong Consumer Council's statement, that is, most of the promotional materials are mainly based on individual players, and the promotional materials of the organizers have always stated that the team will be led by individual players, and consumers have reasonable expectations for these players to participate in exhibition matches.
The Council advises ticket holders to keep the ticket receipts or other relevant evidence for future recovery. This has been reported a lot, but in fact, there is another sentence at the back: whether there is a breach of contract or the failure of the contract is frustrated, it is recommended to consult independent legal advice.
Whether or not this can be sued depends on the consumer's ability to prove and the judge's opinion on the matter, and the Council's view cannot be regarded as a legal judgment.
If this is a civil lawsuit, at present, since the amount of each fan is not higher than 75,000 yuan, it should be tried in the small claims tribunal according to the law, and some lawyers have proposed that a class action lawsuit should be filed through this, and it may be a little observable whether this can be done.
At present, there are also Legislative Council members Tang Ka-piu who ask the organizer to refund the ticket price within a week, otherwise he will appeal to the Small Claims Tribunal on behalf of some consumers to recover losses.
In addition, many Hong Kong** have mentioned Ronaldo's case, yes, it is Ronaldo again, in 2019, when Ronaldo was in Juventus, he went to South Korea to play a commercial game, but he didn't play, similar to Messi in Hong Kong this time. After that, the two Korean fans sued the organizers in court, and the Incheon District Court in South Korea ruled the fans winn.
It remains to be seen whether this matter will cause the lawsuit to come to sleep, and whether the Hong Kong court will refer to the judgment of the South Korean court. However, the direct target of this lawsuit is that the organizer is not Messi, and it is unclear whether the organizer will recover from the club and Messi personally.
Finally, if such a thing happens in Chinese mainland, how can it be judged from a legal perspective?
Let's talk about the relationship between the organizer and the club, if the club knows that the player will not be able to play before signing the contract, and signs the agreement, it may be considered a criminal contract fraud. But as mentioned earlier, it is difficult to predict the absence of athletes due to injury, so there is usually no accountability in this regard.
The civil level involves a question of proof, the player who signed the contract did not play, and the evidence for the organizer ended here, and the key depends on whether the club can prove that it failed to perform in accordance with the contract or due to force majeure.
There is a case in China that there was a company that operated the 2015 Sino-US Basketball Super Tour, in the game contract of Wuhu Station, signed a contract with a local company and promised that the American star Alstom would come, but then in fact this person did not come, the game was still held at that time, and Jiangsu Tongxi played, and now the record can be found on Tongxi's official Weibo, and the local **official Weibo also** this game.
However, in this case, the two parties communicated before the game about Alstom's absence, but there was a dispute over whether the contract was changed, because the operator did not succeed in proving force majeure, the court later determined that the degree of the operator's failure to fully perform the contractual obligations was 60%, and this judgment can be found on the judgment document network, you can refer to it.
In a case like Messi, if it is clearly stated in the terms of the contract, the club may face a problem of proof to see if they can prove that Messi is unable to play due to physical reasons.
As for the relationship between the organizer and the audience, it is actually a question of the difference between the advertisement and the ** competition contract.
If there are circumstances such as violations of state provisions or serious circumstances, it is likely to constitute the crime of false advertising under the Criminal Law, and may be sentenced to up to two years imprisonment or short-term detention and/or a fine. But this is similar to contract fraud, it is also required to know that the content is false before, if the player is temporarily unable to play due to injury, this can hardly be said to be false advertising in the criminal sense, because Messi is here after all.
As for the civil level, it is a more classic question, that is, whether the advertising content can be used as the content of the contract, and it was more common in the past that the commercial housing advertisement was inconsistent with the contract, for example, there was a fountain in the advertisement, but in fact there was no contract, is this considered a breach of contract?
It is generally considered that an advertisement is an invitation to make an offer, depending on whether it will cause the counterparty to have a reasonable reliance and have a significant impact on the formation of the contract, which may be recognized as the content of the contract. Nowadays, many advertisements will be marked as the actual product, and some performances will also remind that the actual local appearance shall prevail, but I don't know if there is such a reminder in the advertisement of this competition in Hong Kong, anyway, I didn't see it.
If not, in Chinese mainland, it may be determined by the court that the advertisement is part of the contract, that is, consumers have reason to believe that Messi will participate in the game based on trust, and then constitute part of the contract, if you want to say that you are also participating on the bench, then why don't you put a Messi on the bench yawning ** in your advertisement? How do you know when you publicize it?
So I personally think that if it happens in Chinese mainland, the audience sues the organizer, there is still a chance to get compensation, of course, there is also a hurdle of whether the bench is counted as a competition, and I am personally inclined to believe that there is a partial breach of contract.
Of course, I said that it doesn't matter, this is not a professional legal opinion, it depends on the judgment of the court, I hope we don't have to catch up with this kind of thing.
But you said that if he came up in stoppage time to brush up on his presence, wouldn't that be a problem? In fact, I also saw some bloggers say that breach of contract is also part of the contract, and the person who signed the contract should be blamed for not requiring Messi to enter within five meters of the lawn.
This statement seems to me to be very shameless, and if it is said that fouls are part of the rules of football, why condemn those fouls that are particularly big? Why don't you shovel him to death? If I broke my leg earlier, I wouldn't have this today. Football games also know how to distinguish between malicious fouls and serious life bans.
I can only say that the law is the bottom line of being a human being, and it can only give some minimum punishments for violating *** rules, which cannot be used as a standard of behavior, and human beings are still moral.
Messi, as the king of the ball, should not only abide by the law, but also be bound by morality, so how to evaluate the moral level of this practice now? Although Messi may not have a direct legal risk, as a star who is loved by thousands of fans, he should know the impact of this on fans. Even if it is said to maintain Messi's image and commercial value, there is a rough judgment on what to do.
To be honest, I sympathize with some Messi fans, because this incident basically can't hurt me, but maybe the person who loves him the most will be hurt the most, I hope everyone will not go to cyberbullying people with different opinions because of this incident, or have an attitude of rational discussion.
The above is my sharing of Messi's turmoil, personal opinions are inevitably omitted, and young men with different opinions are welcome to leave me a message in the comment area and barrage.
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