The organiser of Inter Miami’s ill-fated match in Hong Kong, in which star player Lionel Messi failed to appear, said it would offer refunds of 50%, after the Hong Kong government as well as football fans harshly criticised the event. The refunds will cost Tatler Asia, a magazine and lifestyle brand, $56m HKD (£5.7m). Messi’s failure to play in the much-hyped friendly match on Sunday, because of a groin injury, sparked outrage in Hong Kong, with fans booing the 36-year-old player for not coming on to the pitch. The controversy…
Tag: Sport
Lionel Messi: outcry in China and Hong Kong after star returns from injury in time for Japan match
Chinese state media, Hong Kong politicians and fans have cried foul after Lionel Messi played in a match in Japan, just days after he stayed on the bench for a highly-anticipated match in Hong Kong. Many in Hong Kong were dismayed on Sunday when the 36-year-old Argentinian player did not come on to the field during a much-hyped Inter Miami fixture to a sell-out crowd with fans demanding answers and a refund. Miami’s head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said Messi was deemed unfit to play in Sunday’s match in the…
Snookered by China? Masters tournament owner plots Asia expansion
The owner of the Masters snooker tournament is plotting an expansion trail across Asia after the pandemic exposed the company’s reliance on China, its chair has said. Steve Dawson, who chairs World Snooker, said it was considering staging tournaments in India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Thailand, after its business was held back by three years of Beijing-imposed Covid lockdowns. He also hopes young players in the sport can take inspiration from 16-year-old Luke Littler’s astonishing run to the PDC World Darts Championship final, which is also run by World Snooker’s owner…
Hong Kong beat China at football for first time in 29 years
Hong Kong have beaten China for the first time in 29 years in a friendly football match in Abu Dhabi. Hong Kong’s 2-1 victory over China comes as the former British colony prepares to participate in the Asian Cup for the first time since 1968, when the territory was still under British rule. Hong Kong was passed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997 and is now a “special administrative region” of the People’s Republic of China. But under the terms of the handover agreement, the territory is permitted…
Gay Games delight Hong Kong amid China’s growing hostility to LGBTQ+ community
After months of pandemic-related delays, Asia’s first Gay Games was held in Hong Kong last week, with nearly 2,400 athletes competing. At the opening ceremony, Regina Ip, the convenor of Hong Kong’s executive council, said the competition represented the city’s commitment to “equal opportunity and non-discrimination”, and praised Hong Kong’s courts for the “numerous judgments” handed down in favour of the LGBTQ+ community in the past decade. This was met with bemusement by activists and lawyers, who pointed out that Ip’s government has opposed each of those judgments, losing in…
Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami call off China tour
Lionel Messi won’t be playing in China this month after all. Inter Miami announced Wednesday that its planned trip to China for a pair of exhibition matches has been called off. The team announced the trip last month, with a pair of games originally scheduled for 5 November and 8 November. It would have been at least the eighth time that Messi – the World Cup champion for Argentina and now an eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, after receiving the annual award yet again earlier this week – played in China,…
Chinese censors block ‘Tiananmen’ image of athletes hugging
A photograph of two Chinese athletes hugging after a race has been censored on Chinese social media because the women’s race numbers inadvertently formed a reference to the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Lin Yuwei and Wu Yanni, China’s entrants in the women’s 100m hurdles final, embraced after the race at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Lin won gold in the race with a time of 12.74 seconds. A photograph of the two women in profile showed Lin’s lane number, 6, next to Wu’s lane number, 4. <gu-island name="TweetBlockComponent" deferuntil="visible"…
Unanswered questions over Peng Shuai show power of sport has its limits | Sean Ingle
Where is Peng Shuai? For a brief moment during the Winter Olympics last year I had an answer, of sorts, to that deeply troubling question. For there she was, suddenly and without warning, at the Big Air final, watching the Chinese‑American superstar Eileen Gu soar and spin through the Beijing sky to take gold. At first I wondered from my vantage point in the press stands whether it was really Peng. The presence of the International Olympic Committee president, Thomas Bach, and a swarm of photographers, answered that. Soon images…
China ‘gifts’ and cost concerns: Pacific Games stir controversy in Solomon Islands
Luke Haga has spent the past two years getting ready for the race of his life. Haga, a sprinter, is preparing for the Pacific Games which will be held in his home of Solomon Islands in November. “It’s a time for sports, fun, and to celebrate our togetherness, ” says the 23-year-old, who is training for his events in China. Held every four years, athletes from 24 Pacific Island countries will compete in the Olympic-style tournament. While many share Haga’s excitement, the Games have also attracted controversy, primarily over the…
Saudi Arabia’s big-spending league seeks to avoid China’s failed gamble
Saudi Arabia is the new China. “The system of buying the players that almost ended their career is not the system that develops football,” said Uefa’s chief executive Aleksander Ceferin recently. “It was a similar mistake in China …” When Oscar left Chelsea in December 2016 in a transfer window during which Chinese Super League clubs spent more than £300m, then Blues manager Antonio Conte warned of the Chinese danger. Other stars such as Carlos Tevez, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka also moved east. It ended badly with bankruptcies, corruption…