One of the most decorated soccer players in history, Lionel Messi, is facing a major legal battle after a South Florida-based events company filed a lawsuit alleging fraud and breach of contract connected to a canceled appearance at a 2023 international friendly. According to public court filings from Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the suit was brought last month by Vid Music Group, naming both the global soccer star and the Argentine Football Association (AFA) as defendants. The promoter claims the pair violated the terms of a $7 million agreement when Messi skipped one of the two scheduled exhibition matches last October, a development that cost the company millions in lost revenue. Neither Messi nor representatives from the AFA have issued an immediate public response to requests for comment on the allegations as of press time.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes to ever play the sport, Messi commands a massive premium on ticket prices for matches where he is expected to appear, whether he is suiting up for his Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF or the reigning World Cup-winning Argentine men’s national team. The core of the legal dispute stems from an exclusive deal Vid signed with the AFA last summer, which granted the company full rights to organize, host, and market two October 2023 friendlies between Argentina and national sides Venezuela and Puerto Rico. In exchange for these rights, Vid retained all revenue generated from ticket sales, broadcast rights, and sponsorship deals. Per the terms outlined in the suit, the agreement explicitly required Messi to play a minimum of 30 minutes in each fixture, with an injury being the only acceptable exception to the clause.
Court documents detail that rather than taking the pitch for the October 10 match against Venezuela at Hard Rock Stadium in South Florida, the 36-year-old attacker watched the 1-0 Argentine victory from a private suite inside the venue. Just one day after the Venezuela friendly, Messi took the field for Inter Miami, scoring two goals in the club’s 4-0 routing of Atlanta United in a crucial MLS regular season fixture. The result secured home-field advantage for Inter Miami in the first round of the 2023 MLS playoffs, a high-stakes outcome for the Florida-based club that made Messi’s absence from the international friendly all the more damaging for the promoter, per the suit.
Messi did ultimately appear for Argentina in the second scheduled friendly against Puerto Rico on October 14, though the match itself was marked by organizational setbacks that further cut into Vid’s projected revenue. The fixture was originally slated to be hosted in Chicago, but organizers were forced to relocate it to a smaller venue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida after weak ticket sales. The low demand was tied to widespread public concern over ongoing, high-profile immigration raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the Chicago area that had resulted in more than 1,000 arrests. Even after the move and a steep cut to ticket prices, dropping them as low as $25 per seat, the Fort Lauderdale venue failed to sell out. The AFA has publicly attributed the poor ticket sales for the Puerto Rico match to the immigration crackdown in the original host city.
Vid has not publicly outlined a specific dollar amount for the damages it is seeking in the legal action, but the company confirms that it lost millions in total revenue from two connected issues: Messi’s no-show at the Venezuela friendly and the weak ticket sales for the relocated Puerto Rico match. The lawsuit comes amid a high-profile era for Messi in U.S. soccer, after his 2023 move to Inter Miami transformed the profile of MLS globally and drew record audiences to the league.