Tickets for Lionel Messi’s Hong Kong friendly match sell out in an hour

Tickets for football match between Lionel Messi’s club Inter Miami and a Hong Kong team which were listed online on Friday, have sold out within an hour of being made available to the public.

The Argentine great alongside his former Barcelona teammates Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba at Inter Miami will face a Hong Kong XI at the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium on February 4.

Football fans logged in to the ticketing app on Friday morning and faced a mammoth queue for tickets, which cost from $110-$625.

“We are absolutely thrilled with the response from the fans,” said Michel Lamuniere, chairman and CEO of Tatler Asia, which is helping to stage the game.

Some social media users posted screenshots of the app showing an error message which cited “traffic overload”.

On a radio programme, former Hong Kong football team captain Chan Wai-ho said the upcoming matches will spice up the atmosphere.

“People who don’t normally watch the game might come because of one or two [famous] players. They will become enthusiastic after feeling the atmosphere of watching the game. The craze is not over yet. There is a game in January, and then there’s the Messi game, and another one on the thirteenth. I think it will spice up the atmosphere of the football matches,” he said.

Miami co-owner David Beckham, who played in Hong Kong in 2003 soon after joining Real Madrid, previously said the MLS club was looking forward to playing in a “beautiful city with a great sports scene”.