{"id":601188,"date":"2026-08-22T12:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601188\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:38:12","slug":"messi-fined-by-mls-for-slapping-opposition-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601188\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi fined by MLS for slapping opposition player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping an opponent during a Major League Soccer game.<\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old Inter Miami star lashed out at Quinn Sullivan of Philadelphia Union during their match on Wednesday, catching the midfielder around the back of the head.<\/p>\n<p>Messi appeared to be angry Sullivan had elbowed him after he had played the ball, with the referee intervening before the situation could escalate. The match at Subaru Park finished 2-2.<\/p>\n<p>A statement on the competition&#8217;s website read: &#8220;The MLS Disciplinary Committee has fined Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi an undisclosed amount for violating the league\u2019s policy regarding hands to the face\/head\/neck of an opponent in the 101st+ minute of Miami\u2019s match against the Philadelphia Union on August 19.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A bad-tempered fixture finished with two late red cards as Miami\u2019s Yannick Bright and Sullivan\u2019s brother Cavan were dismissed in stoppage time.<\/p>\n<p>Miami\u2019s Ian Fray has also fined by the MLS for clashing with Sullivan.<\/p>\n<p>Miami sit second in the Eastern Conference, seven points behind leaders Nashville.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping an opponent during a Major League Soccer game. The 39-year-old Inter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-601188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}