During this year's Spring Festival, the waves of a football incident attracted widespread social attention, and the protagonist was the world football superstar Messi.
This incident was not just a simple discord in the arena, it evolved into a storm that sparked national discussion, and even became a ** war.
The heat and breadth have far exceeded expectations, and the public has also been drawn into this dispute, de-fanning, boycotting, and seeming unity.
But I didn't want to, and unknowingly became a "monkey" who was played.
Why is it defined that way?
Let us review the causes of the incident.
Messi's Inter Miami team was invited to Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year to play a highly anticipated friendly match against a local team.
The TA tournament organizer signed a contract with Messi's team, and Hong Kong** paid a certain amount of sponsorship fees.
However, on the day of the game, despite the anticipation of the crowd, Messi was unable to play as scheduled.
Not only that, but he also did not have the traditional handshake etiquette with the representative of Hong Kong** after the game, and this series of behaviors immediately aroused public doubts and dissatisfaction.
As a result, Huo Dagongzi posted on social platforms, bluntly criticizing Messi's disrespect for Chinese fans, and at the same time questioning his professional attitude.
Hong Kong** also later issued a statement saying that it would withdraw its sponsorship of the event.
Stimulated by several fierce articles by Huo Dagongzi, ** began to report on this matter extensively.
China's ** keenly captured the mood of the people, and they stimulated the national sentiment of the public by amplifying Messi's non-appearance and not shaking hands with ***.
Fueled by the fire, the public boycott was on the verge of breaking out, and the scene got out of control for a while, including fans burning Messi's jersey and fierce abuse on social networks.
In this wave fueled by nationalist sentiment, some ** do not hesitate to exaggerate, even without knowing the truth, portraying Messi as a "spy" controlled by Jewish capital.
The spread of this baseless conspiracy theory has caused serious damage to Messi's public image.
But in the turbulent stirring of popular emotions, some calm and rational voices have also emerged.
They called on the TA organisers to make public the details of their contract with Inter Miami to find out if there was indeed a clause in the contract that Messi would have to play.
If the agreement does exist, then legal action will be a possible option, and the reputation of Messi and his team will be seriously challenged.
However, in the face of public skepticism, the TA organizers have remained silent and have not announced the specific content of the contract.
Finally, driven by social pressure, TA organizers announced that they would refund half of the ticket price to ticket-buying spectators as compensation.
In this regard, Hong Kong** and Fok Dagongzi both expressed their appreciation and called on fans to accept this compensatory measure.
Is this weird?
Would rather refund the ticket than publish the contract.
Sure enough, as events unfolded, more investigative information surfaced.
Huo Ergongzi turned out to be one of the main shareholders of the TA organizer.
Messi's contract with Hong Kong** does promise Messi to play at least 45 minutes, but there is no such clause in his contract with Inter Miami.
This discovery reveals the careful planning of the TA organizers throughout the incident: they took advantage of the cultural characteristics of the Chinese who attach great importance to face, forced Messi to play, and tried to get both the best subsidies and high ticket revenues without paying additional fees.
As for Messi, of course, it is impossible to choose to give in.
This is what led to this farce.
In fact, back in January of this year, Inter Miami made it clear that they could not guarantee that Messi would definitely play, and this information was public and verifiable.
The description of Messi's cold face throughout the report is often based on the interpretation of a certain moment captured by **.
But through the **and** shared by other fans, we can see that Messi did engage in some positive interactions during his time in Hong Kong, and was not as indifferent as ** reported.
Messi also participated in the condolence activities for the sick young fans, showing the demeanor of an athlete.
As for the case of not shaking hands with the first brother in Hong Kong, this may be due to a misunderstanding of officialdom etiquette, in Chinese culture, shaking hands with a leader is usually seen as a sign of respect, and Messi's failure to do so may be misunderstood as rudeness.
The drama kicked off with the ringing of the New Year's bells.
While some choose to remain silent after realizing that they have been manipulated, others remain reluctant to admit this fact.
But in any case, it seems that this drama will continue to play out in the future, because there are always people who want to be fooled and who always seem to fail to remember the lessons of the last time.
Source, Visual China, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete).