Miami lawyers consider Messi to be AFA ‘accomplice’ in multi-million lawsuit

United States-based lawyer Ralph Patino, representing the VID Music Group promoters, claimed Tuesday that superstar Lionel Messi is an accomplice of the Argentine Football Association (AFA) in a multi-million lawsuit for breach of contract.

Patino, a lawyer with 35 years of experience, considered the legal action of VID Music Group as an act of responsibility.

"VID entered into a contract to promote four football matches, two in October and two in June," said Patino at a Miami press conference.

"The contract contemplated the presence of Messi as an active participant, having to play 30 minutes in each match," he added.

"The contract as such had consequences, given the absence of Messi. The reason for the lawsuit is to recover the damages deriving from the absence of Messi," maintained the lawyer.

The superstar world champion of Qatar 2022 was absent in the first match against Venezuela on October 10, 2025, forming the brunt of the lawsuit, although he participated in the 90 minutes of the 6-0 drubbing of Puerto Rico three days later.

On being questioned about the direct implication of Messi in the lawsuit, Patino pointed to the US legal principle of "known or must have known."

"Mr Messi did not sign the contract between AFA and VID Group," underlined Patino.

"There is a clause within the contract where AFA guarantees that Messi will play. If you look at it on the basis of the law of breach of contract, Messi has no responsibility. But once he receives money from AFA to play and is practising for the match with the team, Mr Messi already knows that he has an obligation to play and if he does not know that, he should have, therefore he is an accomplice in what happened between him and AFA."

VID Music Group obtained the Argentine rights for the FIFA dates of last October against a payment of US$3.5 million per match while the price of the June matches went up to US$5 million each

Javier Fernández, the owner of VID Music Group, was present at the press conference but made no statements.

In the consideration of this group of lawyers, this is the first lawsuit of this type against AFA in the United States.

– TIMES/AFP