{"id":604574,"date":"2026-04-15T00:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604574\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T00:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T00:48:16","slug":"lionel-messi-argentina-soccer-sued-over-no-show-at-exhibitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/604574\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi, Argentina Soccer Sued Over No-Show At Exhibitions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_png_20260414_f10f3f22e7a748558194a55feced96db\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:7e9ed889-9528-4c52-bcd3-64829674a8d9\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f10f3f22e7a748558194a55feced96db_md.png\" alt=\"lionel messi afa main getty\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Red card for Lionel Messi &#8230; who is at the center of a bombshell lawsuit in Florida, with a promoter claiming the soccer legend left them bleeding cash on a pair of hyped up friendlies that they claim he blew off.<\/p>\n<p>VID, a Miami-based company that puts on large-scale music and sporting events, according to court docs obtained by TMZ Sports, filed a lawsuit against the 38-year-old footballer and the Argentine Football Association on Tuesday in South Florida, alleging fraud and breach of contract, saying they were burned out of millions of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>In August, VID says they struck a deal and ultimately paid the AFA $7 million for the exclusive rights to two exhibition match-ups scheduled for October &#8212; Argentina vs. Venezuela, and Argentina vs. Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"continued\" class=\"continued-anchor\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_png_20260414_d83a7bd1ba4f428ca207f83649937098\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:7e9ed889-9528-4c52-bcd3-64829674a8d9\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d83a7bd1ba4f428ca207f83649937098_md.png\" alt=\"lionel messi sub getty 3\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>They claim Messi was contractually obligated to play at least 30 minutes in each game unless he was injured. In other words, Argentina was playing, but Messi was the draw.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, VID says Lionel bailed on his obligation, deciding not to play &#8230; and instead watching the game with his family from a luxury suite. Adding insult to injury, the promoter says they footed the bill for those costs.<\/p>\n<p>VID says Messi wasn&#8217;t injured &#8230; and they say they know that because he played the very next day, lacing up his cleats and scoring two goals and an assist for Inter Miami.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_png_20260414_f04e20064edc44e0afc38647352fe533\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:7e9ed889-9528-4c52-bcd3-64829674a8d9\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f04e20064edc44e0afc38647352fe533_md.png\" alt=\"lionel messi sub getty\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The second friendly, just a few days later, was also a mess, according to VID, who says they were forced to move the game from Chicago to a small arena in Ft. Lauderdale over civil unrest in the Windy City, resulting in the loss of over a million bucks, according to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>After the disastrous games, VID says AFA promised to make things right with future matchups against China in 2026, but it never came to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>                  <a class=\"js-click-image js-track-link image-lightbox-preview\" data-node-ref=\"tmz:image-asset:image_png_20260414_d86779e7b6014f20a009eb4ab053c5b7\" data-container-ref=\"tmz:article:7e9ed889-9528-4c52-bcd3-64829674a8d9\" data-context=\"{&quot;section&quot;:&quot;permalink&quot;,&quot;name&quot;:&quot;image&quot;}\"><\/p>\n<p>                          <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/d86779e7b6014f20a009eb4ab053c5b7_md.png\" alt=\"lionel messi sub getty 2\" width=\"728\" height=\"546\" class=\"img-fluid image-block__img-fluid img-aspect-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s unclear exactly how much cash VID is seeking, they claim they&#8217;ve lost millions, and they want to be made whole, plus some.<\/p>\n<p>We reached out to the AFA and Messi&#8217;s team for comment.<\/p>\n<p>So far, no word back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red card for Lionel Messi &#8230; who is at the center of a bombshell lawsuit in Florida, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,44,561,82,865,866],"class_list":{"0":"post-604574","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-soccer","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-sports-news","14":"tag-tmz-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}