{"id":165250,"date":"2026-02-23T02:43:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:43:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165250\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T02:43:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T02:43:18","slug":"furious-lionel-messi-enters-referee-area-after-inter-miami-loss-at-lafc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/165250\/","title":{"rendered":"Furious Lionel Messi enters referee area after Inter Miami loss at LAFC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Footage shows a furious Lionel Messi entering an area near the referees’ locker room after Inter Miami’s season-opening defeat to LAFC<\/a> on Saturday, Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

The defending MLS champions fell 3-0 at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, with David Martinez, Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz scoring for LAFC.<\/p>\n

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LAFC kept Messi and Co. in check for much of the game, making a major statement in its first MLS game under new manager Marc Dos Santos.<\/p>\n

Video taken by S\u00edntesis Deportes shows players and officials walking through the tunnel after the game. The match referees walk toward their locker room, with a visibly angry Messi following them.<\/p>\n

Messi’s teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez attempts to restrain him but to no avail, with the Argentine legend continuing on past the camera’s viewpoint.<\/p>\n

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Su\u00e1rez does eventually succeed as Messi exits the area after only a handful of seconds.<\/p>\n

Will Lionel Messi be suspended?<\/p>\n

According to MLS and the Professional Referee Organization (PRO), Messi won’t face a suspension because he did not enter a restricted area.<\/p>\n

“After speaking with match officials, we can confirm he did not enter the premises,” said PRO spokesperson Chris Rivett said.<\/p>\n

There is recent precedent for a MLS player being suspended for behavior similar to Messi’s, but there was a crucial difference.<\/p>\n

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FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga was suspended three matches for entering the referees’ locker room after his side’s playoff defeat against the\u00a0New York Red Bulls\u00a0in November 2023.<\/p>\n

Miazga’s suspension was eventually reduced by one game<\/a> following a successful petition.<\/p>\n

Inter Miami is next in action against rival Orlando City on March 1.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lionel Messi confronts refs after Inter Miami loss at LAFC<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Footage shows a furious Lionel Messi entering an area near the referees’ locker room after Inter Miami’s season-opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165251,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15068,78426,1657,78723,10073,63686,1660,1658,78724,78725,123,125,124,5692,78490,17146,4786],"class_list":{"0":"post-165250","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-cincinnati","9":"tag-david-martinez","10":"tag-denis-bouanga","11":"tag-inter-de-miami","12":"tag-inter-miami","13":"tag-lafc","14":"tag-lionel-messi","15":"tag-luis-suarez","16":"tag-marc-dos-santos","17":"tag-matt-miazga","18":"tag-miami","19":"tag-miami-headlines","20":"tag-miami-news","21":"tag-mls","22":"tag-nathan-ordaz","23":"tag-new-york-red-bulls","24":"tag-orlando-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}