La Liga - Police called as Messi PR stunts turn sour

Eurosport - Thu, 16 Sep 12:00:00 2010

Police were called in as a day of publicity stunts involving Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi in East London descended into pandemonium.

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The diminutive Argentina forward had been due to take part in a match at Hackney Marshes, home to hundreds of amateur football sides.

Yet as he arrived by helicopter Messi was mobbed by excited fans - who had been tipped off about the event via Facebook - prompting security guards to pull the plug on the star's scheduled appearance as a substitute.

Messi did appear at a subsequent football boot giveaway near Brick Lane, but his scheduled appearance at a five-a-side match in Stepney Green was cancelled - and when representatives of sponsors Adidas told the crowd that Messi would not be showing up, the scene turned violent.

Fans threw bottles, cans and cups on to the caged five-a-side pitch, forcing police to call in reinforcements to disperse the assembled throng.

One of the event stewards admitted that the PR stunt had been a disaster.

"It was a bit of a shambles actually," he told Metro. "I don't think Adidas thought it through... it was pandemonium."

An Adidas spokesperson apologised for the disastrous publicity stunt, saying: "We had planned for Messi to play in a five-a-side game in Tower Hamlets.

"Unfortunately, time and safety pressures made this impossible to complete. Adidas would like to apologise to all those loyal fans who turned out but did not get to see Messi."

0916 - News Messi

Eurosport

Comment 158 - 177 of 177

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  1. stephen u proddy @#$% wot kind of so called irish­ person is proud of having english roots?

    From Tom K, on Sat 18 Sep 5:00
  2. 187 - You are so dead.

    From cockett101, on Sat 18 Sep 3:48
  3. If Brits keep on behaving like this I wonder how and­ why Fifa will aloow them the house Fifa Worldcup 2018­ or 2022. It is amazing that those who call themselves­ gentlemen end up behving like animals. essi is not­ the Messiah who must be seen at all costs. Please­ keep the animals in the cages.

    From Jack C, on Sat 18 Sep 2:56
  4. pity yahoo don't shut down posts when they get off­ the point and with some don't even bother to let­ people make comments. what comments can be made about­ this story that have any value, a badly organised event­ leads to cancellation and disappointed people throw­ their cuts, cans etc onto the pitch. sounds like­ anywhere there are a large number of disappointed­ people, could have been worse and they could have­ rioted and smashed everything in sight or better and­ they could all have just left...

    Doesn't really­ matter where this happened or who was involved, it is­ just being used as an excuse for the same borring anti­ English mindless tripe being repeated and then anti­ Scottish responses. Why not just have a thread for­ those bigots to snipe at each other and ban such­ comments from the rest of the threads

    From Badge, on Fri 17 Sep 13:05
  5. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Blacks!

    From Phillip, on Fri 17 Sep 12:32
  6. If the english want to see the world's best player­ Lionel Messi in action, they'll have to wait until­ next year when Argentina will play against England in a­ friendly game at Wembley in february.

    From momo, on Fri 17 Sep 12:29
  7. how do you think the rangers fans that never got to see­ the game in manchester felt ,when they never got to see­ the game down there and there was 150.000 there

    From William Gallagher, on Fri 17 Sep 11:54
  8. Hey, Lionel Messi, success for you, ....... God bless­ You.

    From Wolter, on Fri 17 Sep 11:49
  9. Stephen i'm from Ireland to and your talkin like a­ proper cork person...an idiot..You would rather watch­ Berbatov or Neville instead of messi???What are you­ talkin about?Messi is GOD..The best player in the world­ bar none...

    From david, on Fri 17 Sep 11:36
  10. you could say the stunt went a little...messy...messi?­ messy?

    wow tough crowd.

    From jason, on Fri 17 Sep 11:29
  11. What is the matter with all you scots, welsh and other­ brits! There was not a british person in sight ! The­ pitch invasion was not by any east ender Ockney. The­ pitch was invaded and bootles thrown, by rude univited­ guests. But much like all gate crashers they don't­ respect the host and just behave like they want to !­ RUDE

    From JOHN, on Fri 17 Sep 11:12
  12. Begging everyones pardon,
    I was born in Cork, Ireland­ of an Irish mother and an East London( Stepney) father.­ Can't say that it did me one bit of harm by the­ way. On the contrary,I 'd venture to say that­ visiting London, even the Greater London area like­ Sutton, made me feel proud to have antecedents from­ England. Smart individually though Englanders are, I­ feel that they are ever under increasing pressure to­ tolerate incomers. Messi is not the be all and end­ all of the footballing firmament. I would personally­ favor Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Dimitar Berbatov,­ Wayne Rooney as encompassing compelling football­ viewing; not playmakers all the time but they stand for­ England and it's " anything's­ posssible" style of football. I believe that they­ would put their collective heads where angels would­ fear to put their feet. I believe that English football­ and it's adherents are true scholars of the­ Shakespearean dramatic flair. I live in Ireland but we­ don't have much of a footballing standard. I think­ that Messi should be grateful for the attention that­ his arrival has garnered. We respect him but sometimes­ folk let their well-intentioned enthusiasm overwhelm­ them. God speed all sports. My 12 year old son did a­ year of tennis training in London and improved­ immensely as a result. God bless England and all who­ travel in her.

    From Stephen, on Fri 17 Sep 11:10
  13. cockneys are great.

    From Jonny Markl, on Fri 17 Sep 11:10
  14. Ha, ha......... they edited out the word Cockney,­ suppose they'll do it again with this­ one!!!
    Hello......... a Cockney is the name for a true­ Eastender born within the sound of Bow Bells and NO­ it's not the church in Bow E3 its the Church in­ Cheapside in the City of London, that is 'The­ Church of St Mary -Le -Bow ' of Cockney fame

    From Wobbles, on Fri 17 Sep 10:43
  15. 177

    Ben, thanks for proving my point

    From jcsoldia, on Fri 17 Sep 10:42
  16. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    The English are the best. Everyone else is just total­ toss.

    From scott, on Fri 17 Sep 10:41
  17. The comment 169 'Steve'.
    Dear Steve, please do­ not class all of 'East London' with the morons­ to do with this. Most of the people in that part of the­ East End are NOT REAL EASTENDERS AND NEVER WILL BE.­ Unfortunately 99% of true Eastenders have been forced­ out by increasing numbers from abroad who think that­ moving into the 'East End' makes them have to­ behave like 'morons' due to the how the­ Cockneys are betrayed in certain films. They do not­ have the 'old morals' of true Eastenders and­ never will have.
    The people who behave like this are­ the ones that give this area a bad reputation but alas­ the 'old ways' are disappearing fast and­ we'll never get them back again.
    Don't believe­ what the papers say, not everyone has a knife or a gun,­ not everyone gets mugged walking down the street and­ not everyone is a drug dealer. Living here (50 years­ now) I know where I should walk and where I­ shouldn't. I suppose it's the same where you­ live also.
    Just to put that East London in the article­ makes it all clear is wrong.

    From Wobbles, on Fri 17 Sep 10:34
  18. Correction ro Comment 163: Sorry, I got it wrong. The­ woman on the checkout in Asda told my mother that Leeds­ (the greatest team ever) were getting a little messy­ (referring to 5-2 defeat by Barnsley), not getting that­ little Messi ! My aplogies for starting false rumour.

    From Andreas, on Fri 17 Sep 10:26
  19. jcsoldia

    Read the first two lines of ur post and­ started losing the will to live. How boring are you?­ Please leave these blogs and walk down the centre of­ the nearest motorway, until you arrive at the pearly­ gates hahahahaha

    From goonerno1, on Fri 17 Sep 10:25
  20. hah if scotland was seperate from england you would be­ a third world country . . . FACT

    From jacobtankard, on Fri 17 Sep 10:24
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