Lionel Messi’s army of Chinese fans expressed dismay after Inter Miami announced a late reshuffle of its tour plans, amid confusion over when tickets would actually go on sale following a contradictory statement from the official organiser.
Providing an updated schedule for its two-match China visit on Thursday, the Major League Soccer side confirmed a change of location for its first game on November 5.
They will still face the same opposition however in Qingdao Hainiu, who play in the Chinese Super League (CLS).
Miami, who are co-owned by former Manchester United legend David Beckham, will then head to Chengdu to face local side Chengdu Rongcheng, also of the CLS, three days later at the 60,000-seat Chengdu Phoenix Mountain Sports Park as originally advertised.
But supporters on social media were less than impressed by the short-notice switch.
Some fans on China’s Twitter-like platform Weibo said they had already booked hotels in Qingdao and air tickets in advance of match tickets going on sale, following the first official fixture announcement.
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Making matters worse, confusion reigned after Miami’s latest statement said tickets were set to go on sale at 4pm Beijing time on Thursday through Damai – only for the online ticketing platform to deny that claim in the morning.
“We have not received the ticket issue notice for the Miami China trip schedule on October 26,” Damai, which was only established in August, said in a statement on its official Weibo account.
“Please refer to the domestic official channels of the event for release.”
Come 4pm, some fans confirmed they were unable to buy tickets through the platform, which did not go down well.
“Congratulations on your success in deceiving Inter Miami and the fans,” a frustrated user wrote on Weibo, while another accused the organisers of being “an international fraudster”.
“So when and where can we grab tickets?” a user asked.
“It really doesn’t matter whether Messi goes to Qingdao or not – but the news in the morning said that tickets will be opened at 4pm, now? You guys are really outrageous, stop sneaking around,” one fan said.
Qingdao also have an MLS fixture scheduled away at the Cangzhou Mighty Lions on November 4, just a day before the Miami match, as well as a Chinese FA Cup semi-final against Shanghai Shenhua at home on November 7 – which could explain the switch of location.
Some fans in Qingdao were still optimistically hoping Messi might pay them a visit.
“The people of Qingdao welcome you … Come!” one user wrote on Weibo. “If I were a Qingdao people, my heart would be broken,” another said.
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