SAD NEWS: Lionel Messi’s world tour of Inter Miami was a PR fiasco and a complete mess.

We’re referring to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s global exhibition game tour, where Argentina’s captain, who won the 2022 World Cup, has been the star attraction.We’re referring to Lionel Messi and Inter Miami’s global exhibition game tour, where Argentina’s captain, who won the 2022 World Cup, has been the star attraction.

The goal of the matches is to create a new brand by utilizing celebrities like Messi and Uruguayan Luis Suarez for marketing and promotion. Rather, the tour is receiving a lot of negative press, and the outcomes of the matches that have traveled from El Salvador to Dallas to Saudi Arabia and finally Hong Kong on Sunday have not improved.

The next encounter is scheduled for Wednesday at Tokyo’s National Stadium versus Vissel Kobe, and the last match is scheduled for February 16 in Florida against Newell’s Old Boys, Messi’s childhood club in Argentina and possibly his final destination before retiring.

Through five games, Inter Miami has been outscored 12-7 and won only once. And that was Sunday in Hong Kong, where a 4-1 victory over the local team was overshadowed by angry fans holding up signs demanding a refund and booing since neither Messi nor Suarez played — both out injured and aging.

Messi is 36 and Suarez is 37, and both are more and more subject to nagging injuries.

“The marketing hype in promoting the event to global fans creates high expectations, coupled with government subsidy of the event,” John Grady, a sports law professor at the University of South Carolina, told The Associated Press. “This also raises the expectations that marquee players will appear as advertised.”