Shortly after Inter Miami lost the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC) quarterfinal against CF Monterrey of Mexico, reports of a post-match tunnel dust-up at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium began to surface. The 2-1 scoreline had put the Mexican side one step closer to their sixth CCC title — but the stadium fracas has taken center stage before the highly anticipated return leg at Monterrey’s BBVA Stadium on Wednesday night.
More than just a typical shouting match between professional players, this incident is shrouded with nationalism and betrayal.
Reports from various outlets stated Lionel Messi, who was not in the squad as he continued his recovery from a hamstring injury, and his Inter Miami teammates Jordi Alba and Luis Suarez, as well as Inter Miami head coach Tata Martino, all confronted the match referee as he walked off the pitch and entered the dressing room area.
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It’s difficult to know if any one incident sparked the confrontation, but there is one notable possibility. In the 86th minute, Inter Miami’s players and their bench were livid when Guatemalan referee Walter López waved play on after a supposed handball inside the Monterrey penalty area. The play was not reviewed via video assistant referee nor was it replayed by the broadcast feed. Monterrey then scored the winner a few minutes later.
Miami players were incensed at the referee’s decision (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)
However, the referee was unknowingly implicated as a potential saboteur before the match had even started. Three days before the first leg during an interview with Santiago Fourcade, an Argentine journalist who is based in Mexico, Monterrey manager Fernando Ortiz insinuated that the series against the high-priced Inter Miami squad headlined by one of the best players ever would be affected by “the business of football.”
During the nearly hour-long interview, in which Ortiz referred to Messi as “indecipherable,” Ortiz also suggested that Inter Miami’s stature as a newfound MLS darling, coupled with Messi’s influence, would benefit the MLS side.
“(My players) have to understand that this is just another opponent, that (Messi) is just another player,” Ortiz told Fourcade. “Because then there’s everything else. The referee, the atmosphere. This kid Lionel is more concerned about everything that’s going on and he isn’t playing as much. Everything that surrounds Messi can lead to decisions that are both sporting and non-sporting. Was I clear?”
Fourcade then asked Ortiz if the extracurriculars of the match would hurt Monterrey during the two-legged tie, or if the game of football’s so-called business interests would help the Mexican club advance. Ortiz, 46, who played as a defender for seven Argentine clubs and three Liga MX teams during a career that spanned 16 years, answered nonchalantly.
“I don’t know if it’ll hurt us, but that’s the path that the business (of football) will take,” said Ortiz. “Everyone knows this. I’m not saying something that we don’t all already know. And I get it, but I don’t condone it.”
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When the interview was posted online, the earth didn’t shake. It seemed like a relatively harmless conversation — but Messi caught wind of it. At some point before the first leg in Fort Lauderdale, Ortiz landed on Messi’s black list — the same one as Netherlands manager Louis Van Gaal, who had incensed Messi with his comments before the World Cup quarter-final in Doha that Argentina eventually won on penalties.
“Messi doesn’t participate much when the other team has the ball. That’s where our chances lie,” Van Gaal told reporters in Qatar. “He can decide a game with a moment of individual brilliance. But in the semifinal we played against Argentina in 2014, he didn’t touch a ball, and we lost on penalties. Now we want our revenge.”
Messi celebrated Argentina’s second goal in that 2022 quarterfinal, a penalty that he converted, by celebrating in front of Van Gaal and the Netherlands bench with a gesture made famous by former Argentine No. 10 Juan Roman Riquelme. After the win, Messi addressed Van Gaal’s comments.
Messi’s World Cup spat with Louis Van Gaal was brought up in Ortiz’s interview (Liu Lu/VCG via Getty Images)
“I was angry about the build-up because a coach like Van Gaal, with all the experience he has, with the matches and battles he’s had throughout his career, shouldn’t have spoken in the way that he did or disrespected us like he did,” said Messi from the Lusail Stadium mixed zone, the post-match interview area where players can talk to members of the media as much, or as little, as they like. “It didn’t have to be like that; it didn’t make sense.
“I felt like he disrespected the Argentina national team. I don’t like to talk like that before matches. That’s not part of football. I always give everyone respect, but I prefer to be respected too. Van Gaal was not respectful towards us.”
Van Gaal upped the temperature again out of nowhere last September when he claimed that Argentina’s World Cup triumph was “premeditated”.
It was a plainly outrageous thing to say, but when the conspiracy theory was brought up during the interview with Ortiz, the Monterrey manager didn’t exactly reject it.
“Everyone knows that football is a business,” he said. “We’ll win from the sporting side. I can’t control other things.”
In Argentina, reporters and fans on social media reacted to Ortiz’s comments with disdain. Fans accused Ortiz of foolishly provoking Messi. Others joked that they had never heard of Ortiz until now.
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TyC Sports reporter Martin Arevalo is among the most prominent journalists who cover the Argentina national team. His reaction on X painted Ortiz as disloyal to his own country.
“Ortiz is an Argentinian,” Arevalo wrote. “And that’s why it’s very strange for him to have implied what he did during that interview with Santiago Fourcade. (Ortiz) elevated the temperature of that match by talking about the business of football and the interests of those who control it. The worst and saddest part was what he implied regarding the World Cup.”
Fourcade later confirmed reports that Messi had confronted Ortiz in the Chase Stadium tunnel. That incident occurred at halftime. The post-match arguments then escalated significantly with Alba, Messi and Martino all involved with members of the Monterrey staff. Fourcade would later say that members of Inter Miami’s security demanded that those who had used their phones to record the verbal quarrels delete the videos.
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“This was co-signed by CONCACAF officials who were present,” Fourcade claimed during an appearance on Mexico’s RG La Deportiva. Fourcade also said that Martino was heard shouting, “This is unacceptable among Argentinians!”
Inter Miami and CONCACAF declined to comment.
Soon, yet another log would be thrown on the fire.
On Sunday, a WhatsApp voice message from Monterrey assistant coach Nicolás Sanchez, another Argentinian, was leaked to the Mexican press. In the message, which he confirmed was his, Sanchez describes what occurred in the tunnel from his point of view.
Messi returned to action in MLS play this past weekend and is expected to play on Wednesday (Chris Arjoon/AFP via Getty Images)
“Yes, Messi wanted to fight me,” Sanchez is heard saying. “I don’t think he wanted to hit me because he would’ve. He put his fist one centimeter from my face. He was looking to see how I’d react, not hit me.”
Sanchez added that before tempers flared, he was looking for Messi to take a picture with him — but when Messi finally appeared, Sanchez described him as “incredibly heated” and that Martino and Messi were beside themselves.
“He wanted to eat me alive,” Sanchez said.
What Sanchez said next has been lost in translation – the coach referred to Messi as “el enano” or “dwarf,” but in Latin America, the term is used colloquially to refer to a person of short stature. Messi’s closest Argentina teammates often refer to him that way.
“(Messi) was possessed, he had the face of the devil,” Sanchez continued. “He put his fist next to my face and says: ‘Who do you think you are?’ But because I didn’t look at him, I was looking away, I never answered back, it made things worse.”
Sanchez also referred to Martino as “an idiot.”
“I could’ve hidden behind a statement, but I wanted to make myself responsible for the words that come out of my mouth,” said Sanchez in a video apology posted after the leak. “That’s my voice. It’s a detailed account of what happened on Wednesday night after the game… I sent the audio to my intimate circle, my closest, most private circle… but it was my error. I’ll learn from this. I understand that because this audio has gone public, many people could be offended.
“Gerardo Martino is a person who I don’t know and I referred to him disrespectfully. I offer him an apology and I hope he understands that I’m as Argentinian as they are and I’ll always defend my club.”
Over the weekend, Monterrey filed an official complaint with CONCACAF over the fracas.
“We hope that CONCACAF takes the necessary measures,” the club’s statement read in part. Monterrey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ortiz, in turn, distanced himself from the drama upon his return to Mexico.
“What happened will stay there,” he told the media. “I’m not going to say anything. I’m not going to talk about this issue. It happened there. I had the best of intentions.”
Confrontations in the tunnel are not unheard of in football — but in this case, national pride and the world’s most popular player added a spark that will surely carry over to tomorrow’s decisive second leg in Mexico.
(Top photos: Megan Briggs/Getty Images; Agustin Cuevas/Getty Images)
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