A Messi game that was publicized in advance but could not be realized
In the early morning of this morning, Beijing time, Messi lifted the eighth Golden Ball trophy in Paris and became a well-deserved king of the current era.
Five days later, according to the original publicity, he was supposed to come to China with the Miami International Club to participate in a commercial competition. However, according to Lazy Bear Sports, due to the incomplete implementation of the game procedures and other complicated factors, Messi and Miami Club could not come as scheduled.
Hongqiao International Group invited Messi and the Argentine national team to play in Beijing in June this year, and made a lot of money, and other people or companies immediately followed suit, hoping to replicate this model of competition and making money, but ignored the risks and uncertainties involved.
So fans may be disappointed when the Miami China tour doesn't go as planned, but more in the sports industry aren't surprised. For China's commercial competition operations, what happened this year is "exciting" enough. Towards the end of the year, such a pre-publicized but unrealizable Messi game is enough to bring more thinking and enlightenment.
▲Messi's eighth Ballon d'Or trophy
Beforehand
On October 15, Shanghai Mega Sports Development Co., Ltd. announced the plan for the trip to Miami International Club from Major League Soccer (MLS) to China: challenging Qingdao Manatee on November 5 and Chengdu Rongcheng on November 8.
After representing the Argentine national team in the Workers' Stadium against Australia on June 15, Messi will return to China after five months to participate in commercial competitions. The tournament was named the "SuperCup", and Mega Sports was the event operator. Three days later, the official Weibo of the Mega SuperCup released an eight-second warm-up video for the game, in which Miami International Club player and former Spain international Sergio Busquets said he was happy to be playing in Qingdao.
In addition to Miga Sports, Inter Miami also released official information about the two matches via social media on October 15. With the double confirmation of the organizer and the protagonist, the competition has been "finalized" in principle. As Miami International's opponents, Qingdao Manatee and Chengdu Rongcheng should have the same statement according to common sense, but they have not been able to wait for their official announcement.
On October 18, Lazy Bear Sports contacted Chengdu Rongcheng Club and received a reply that the club would assist the organizers of the event to go through the relevant procedures and was willing to participate in the competition, but it would not be officially announced until all the competition procedures were completed. Similarly, the formalities on the Qingdao side were not completed before the official announcement.
▲Qingdao Manatee team participating in the Chinese Super League.
In the communication with some people related to the sports industry, the main analysis believes that there are two reasons for the organizer's urgent official announcement: one is to attract investment. At this time, there are still 21 days before the first game, and the investment time left for Mega Sports is very limited; On the other hand, it is hoped that through such an official announcement, especially the official announcement of the Miami International Club, it is hoped that there will be no problems with the competition, so as to achieve the purpose of speeding up the approval procedures for the event.
According to Lazy Bear Sports, after the official announcement, 9 sponsors expressed interest. But since the game hasn't fully landed, it's all just intentions.
With the No. 1 IP in football like Messi, coupled with the hot effect when he came to China to play half a year ago, it is not difficult to attract investment. However, it is not so easy to speed up the approval of the event through the "official announcement of the protagonist", which is why even if the official announcement is made, the game still cannot be carried out as usual. Without completing all the vetting and not meeting the conditions for the competition, even if it has been confirmed by internationally renowned players and clubs, it is in vain.
Accidents happen
A manager who has been engaged in the operation of sports events told Lazy Bear Sports that according to the normal process of running the competition, after the event company signs a competition agreement with Miami International Club, the latter needs to declare to the United States Professional League and obtain written permission, and after the Chinese side gets the Miami contract and the written permission of the American Professional League, it will then apply to the local Football Association and the Chinese Football Association to obtain industry approval.
After obtaining the industry approval, the Chinese side needs to send invitation letters to all the people on the list of visitors to China in Miami, and the relevant domestic management agencies will review the list, and after passing the review, the Chinese visa will be processed for the personnel to China, and the shortest operation time of this process is one week.
At the same time, the Chinese company handling this matter also needs to prepare the materials of the Chinese opponent, the competition venue, the reception hotel, the training venue, the security company, the ticketing company and the execution company and other relevant parties of the competition, and the detailed plan for the competition, and report to the public security bureau where the event is located, and obtain security and ticketing permissions.
Another manager who is engaged in the operation of the event told Lazy Bear Sports that the approval process should allow at least three months for such a commercial competition. However, if the event company is well prepared and can straighten out various relationships, there is also a possibility that all the procedures will be completed in one month.
On October 8, Inter Miami lost 0-1 at home to FC Cincinnati, seven points behind D.C. United, who are in ninth place in the East. With two rounds left in the league, it is certain that they will miss the playoffs. In other words, the time when Miami International Club finally confirmed that it can play in China is October 8, which is almost one month before the game on November 5. The Chinese company had been in contact with Inter Miami before that, so theoretically, if the tournament company had enough experience and resources to run the tournament, there was a chance that the two matches would go ahead as planned.
But in the meantime, accidents have happened one after another. The first surprise was that a match was originally scheduled to be played in Japan on November 4 against FC Tokyo, but due to the limited venue in Tokyo to host the match, it had to contact Vissel Kobe FC on an ad hoc basis. Although Kobe had the conditions to take over the game, the tournament organizers did not get approval from the Japanese Football Association, and the Japanese game had to be cancelled.
▲ Messi, who plays for Miami FC.
Three or four days before the official announcement, Mega Sports and Qingdao Manatee Club reached an agreement to replace the Japanese team and play a friendly match with Miami International Club on November 5. It is worth mentioning that Qingdao Manatee team challenged Cangzhou Lions away in the final round of the Chinese Super League on November 4, and will play a friendly match with Miami International Club one day later, which is obviously unreasonable. But the Manatee Club did not refuse, and they were even ready to split their forces into two ways, some of the players went to play the Chinese Super League away game, and the other part stayed in Qingdao to prepare for the match with Miami International.
A few days after the official announcement, the prices of hotels around Qingdao Qingchun Island Football Stadium doubled or tripled. However, the approval procedures for Qingdao have not been completed. Around October 20, the tournament company basically determined that the game could not be held in Qingdao. At this time, there is still half a month before the competition. Similarly, the formalities in Chengdu have not been completed.
There is no way to remedy
The approval procedures for the competitions in Qingdao and Chengdu could not be completed for a while, and the organizing committee aimed at Haikou. The original plan was for the Qingdao Manatees to play in Haikou, and the Chengdu game to continue to go through the process, after all, the Phoenix Mountain Stadium is currently one of the hottest football stadiums, and the attendance rate is considerable.
However, the competition procedures of the Chengdu side have not been updated, and the Mega Sports side has considered letting Chengdu Rongcheng go to Haikou to compete like the Qingdao Manatee team. Since March 15 this year, Hainan Province has implemented a visa-free policy for people from 59 countries, which will reduce the approval process of the competition to some extent.
On the evening of November 26, the official WeChat public account of the Information Office of the Haikou Municipal People's Government "Haikou Release" released a message saying: "Haikou City has docked and is promoting the landing of Messi's China Tour International Football Friendly Match. At present, the relevant approval work in Haikou has been completed, and the organizer will make an official announcement on the event viewing and ticketing channels that fans are concerned about after the relevant business procedures are completed. ”
However, he then said: "If Messi's China trip to the international football friendly match can be confirmed, Haikou City will provide good services for fans inside and outside the island to watch the football game and visit Haikou." The word "if" in the official announcement is meaningful, it shows that Haikou has the conditions to host the competition, and it is the job of the organizer to improve the business procedures and determine the opponent of the competition.
The attitude of the Qingdao Manatee Club towards going to Haikou to participate in the competition has always been positive. On October 26, when Lazy Bear Sports communicated with a Qingdao Manatee Club personnel, the other party even said that the game had been determined and would be held at Haikou Wuyuanhe Stadium on November 5.
But only the Manatees' game was certain.
▲Chengdu Rongcheng team participating in the Chinese Super League.
On October 27, the organizing committee of the tournament released a message, saying that "Miami International Football Club is sorry that the second leg of the China tour will not be held in Chengdu for various reasons". I can't play in Chengdu, and the plan of "going to Haikou to play the game" has not been recognized by Chengdu Rongcheng Club. A person from the Rongcheng club told Lazy Bear Sports that as long as he left Chengdu, he would not play.
For Chengdu Rongcheng Club, they can get an appearance fee for participating in the competition. In the event of a temporary change of venue, they are not obliged to cooperate and have the right to choose whether to play or not to play according to their own circumstances. This means that the only opponents left for Miami International Club are the Manatees, and they will have to play two full games on their trip to China. The Meizhou Hakka Club thus became an alternative, but it was also unsuccessful. With 10 days to go before the first game, there was no update on the teams, kick-off times, ticketing information, etc. of the two games, and the game was like a brightly lit office that suddenly tripped due to a short circuit in the wires, and it was pitch black.
The plan fell through
According to Lazy Bear Sports, the two games of Miami International Club's China tour are basically certain to be unable to go on as scheduled. There are reports that the match may be extended until February next year, which is the pre-season of Miami International Club, but this has not been confirmed by authoritative sources. From what has been known so far, this is almost unlikely.
Maijia Sports Development Co., Ltd. was established on August 28, 2023, and the legal person is Xu Jing, which is a new company registered specifically for the purpose of organizing this competition. According to people familiar with the matter, after signing with Miami International Club, Miga Sports paid a deposit of about $3 million to the other party, which is equivalent to 30% of the appearance fee.
As a sports insider, Xu Jing was mainly engaged in sports brokerage work before, and had little experience in organizing large-scale competitions independently. People familiar with the matter said that before contacting the Miami International Club, Xu Jing found a well-funded investor.
Judging from what Lazy Bear Sports has learned from many sources, the reasons why the game could not be held as scheduled are very complex. First of all, Xu Jing's experience in organizing the competition is relatively lacking, he has found some domestic events and brokerage companies to help in the preparation process, and each competition venue also has the assistance of related companies, but not all companies have played an active role in the promotion of the event, and even in the process there have been serious differences between the organizer and individual assistance companies on the box office share. In addition, in terms of the approval procedures for the event, Mega Sports did not fully estimate the difficulties. The way Argentina played against Australia is not something that all companies can do.
▲The first Weibo content officially released by the Super Cup.
On October 18, Lazy Bear Sports contacted Xu Jing through WeChat. Talking about the complicated approval procedures, he said that there are solutions, and he can't say too much at present.
"Will the game not be played?" To this question, Xu Jing replied in a rhetorical and affirmative way: "What do you think? How can it be. ”
Last week, there was news that the Miami China Tour would not be held as scheduled. We contacted Xu Jing several times, but he didn't reply to any further messages.
On October 9, the Mega SuperCup Weibo posted their first post after registration, with the main color of the two images being the same color as the home jersey of Miami International Club, and the words "Coming Soon" in English.
A fan whose IP address was displayed as Shaanxi left a message: "There are no other requirements, I hope your organizers can be more reliable this time", and the Mega SuperCup replied: "Listen to your suggestion, expand and talk." ”
Six days later, the Mega SuperCup officially released an "official announcement" about the two matches, but the "official announcement" has now been deleted.
In mid-October, Messi recorded an 11-second video of the match, in which he said in Spanish, dressed in a black tracksuit from Inter Miami, "We are very happy to be with you in Qingdao soon." ”
At the end of the video, he gives a thumbs up to the camera. However, before the video could be released, it lost its meaning. The IP address is the question of "reliable or not" that fans in Shaanxi are worried about, and they didn't have time to "expand and talk", and there was an answer.
Disclaimer: This article was originally written by Lazy Bear Sports and may not be reproduced without authorization.