Monterrey present formal complaint to CONCACAF after Miami incident with Messi and Martino

Monterrey head into the second leg of the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final tie against Inter Miami as favourites thanks to their 1-2 win on Wednesday night in South Florida.

The end of the game saw tension flare as the Mexican side bagged a late winner and this friction continued into the tunnel at the end of the match where Rayados boss Tano Ortiz and his assistant, Nico Sánchez, appeared and reportedly confronted Messi himself as the Argentine took the refereeing team to task over decisions during the game.

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Monterrey assistant manager Sánchez has gone on the record stating what happened with the audio widely available via social media: “When I head to the tunnel, I see Messi standing there just three metres away from me with a member of the Inter Miami security team. I approached Messi for photo and the security guy stops me, but in a pleasant manner but it’s plain to see that Messi is livid and just at that point the match officials came through and Messi takes them to task and calls them out but in a hostile manner as Tata Martino approaches and he too has very heated words with the refereeing trio.

I see people from CONCACAF and say to them, ‘If we were to react in this way, we’d all be kicked-out” and then Messi reappears and approaches me and ‘says, who the hell do you think you are’ with his fist raised and said all sorts. I’m sure that all the videos that captured this have been deleted as what they did was extremely serious but I’m sure that there will be no video filtered as they come out of the incident looking really bad”.

Following some doubts over the veracity of the audio, Sanchez has subsequently released a video confirming that the words were indeed his and that the Whatsapp audio was only meant to be listened to by his close circle and admitted his error in sending the recording but the Argentine also insisted on what happened and stated that ‘I will always defend my club’.

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Monterrey also subsequently issued a brief statement following Wednesday night’s game and subsequent post-match incidents: “We would like to state that we have expressed to CONCACAF our official position on the unfortunate events that occurred in the locker room area, after the match on Wednesday, 3 April in Miami. We hope that CONCACAF takes the corresponding measures,” the statement reads.

Rayados de Monterrey and Inter Miami go head-to-head again next Wednesday, 10 April in the second leg of the quarter-final and the winners will progress to face the winning side from the Columbus Crew-Tigres UANL match.