German Media: Influence of Messi Incident Halts Top European Clubs’ Plans to Visit China

According to German media outlet Kicker, top European football clubs were unable to travel to China for exhibition matches this summer due to the impact of the Messi incident.

Every summer is a prime time for major European football clubs to generate revenue by traveling to other regions for friendly matches. For example, German teams such as RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt went to the United States, while FC Augsburg headed to South Africa. Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and VfB Stuttgart traveled to Asia, with visits to Japan, South Korea, and Thailand respectively.

However, the largest market in Asia is China, a country with over a billion people. From 2010 to 2019, significant investment was made in European football stars in China. Football is the third most popular sport in China, after table tennis and basketball, and it enjoys immense popularity. Bundesliga teams also had plans to visit China.

Kicker reports that clubs including Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund had hoped to play friendly matches in China this summer but did not receive permission. The reason is linked to Messi, who visited Hong Kong earlier this year but did not play due to injury. However, he appeared in a friendly match in Japan just days later, causing dissatisfaction in China and leading to the cancellation of Argentina’s planned friendly match in the country.

Both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have offices in Shanghai and would directly apply to China’s General Administration of Sport if they wanted to play in China. However, this time, their applications went unanswered. Besides Bundesliga teams, clubs from the other five major European leagues faced similar situations, with French clubs suffering the biggest losses, as the French Super Cup was originally planned to be held in China.