{"id":746108,"date":"2026-08-22T11:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746108\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T11:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T11:22:15","slug":"lionel-messi-fined-for-slapping-opposition-player-in-mls-game-lionel-messi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/746108\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi fined for slapping opposition player in MLS game | Lionel Messi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping an opponent during a Major League Soccer game. The 39-year-old Inter Miami forward lashed out at Quinn Sullivan of Philadelphia Union during their match on Wednesday, catching the midfielder around the back of the head.<\/p>\n

The Argentinian 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

A statement on the competition\u2019s website read: \u201cThe MLS disciplinary committee has fined Inter Miami<\/a> 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 19 August.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. Miami\u2019s Ian Fray has also been fined by the MLS<\/a> for clashing with Sullivan.<\/p>\n

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Miami sit second in the Eastern Conference, seven points behind the 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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-746108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}