Major League Soccer has cleared Lionel Messi of wrongdoing after the Argentinian appeared to pursue match officials after Inter Miami’s season-opening loss to LAFC on Saturday evening.
In a video posted to X by Síntesis Deportes reporter Giovanni Guerrero, Messi appears to confront match officials as they entered a doorway within the LA Coliseum after the match, a 3-0 win for LAFC. Miami forward Luis Suárez is seen restraining Messi, who slips out of his teammate’s grip and disappears behind a door. He emerged seconds later and retreated with Suárez to Miami’s locker room.
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“The area [Messi entered] wasn’t a restricted area, which would have been marked off with signage” an MLS spokesperson told the Guardian on Sunday. “It was not the referee’s locker room. The league reviewed the sequence, and did not find Messi or another person involved in violation of any league policies.”
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Chris Rivett, director of communications at Professional Referee Organization (Pro), the body that administers professional refereeing in North America, said that it was confirmed with the match officials that Messi did not enter their locker room.
The video of Messi, which spread on social media on Saturday night and Sunday morning, harkened back to a similar incident in 2023 involving FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga. Miazga received a three-match suspension – later reduced to two – for entering the referee’s changing room after a playoff win over the New York Red Bulls.
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The Professional Soccer Referees Association (PSRA), the labor union who represent MLS referees, said that Miazga had been “forcibly removed” from the locker room after “angrily” confronting match officials, a description that FC Cincinnati officials disagreed with.
League investigators used video footage in that case, as well, though it was never publicly released. Miazga was forced out of a pair of playoff matches, and Cincinnati were eliminated in the Eastern Conference finals by the Columbus Crew.
Messi has a history in MLS of criticizing officials. After a 3-0 loss to Orlando City SC in 2025, Messi used a rare post-game interview on Apple TV to criticize Guido Gonzales Jr after the referee appeared to miss a backpass. Orlando scored a goal on the ensuing sequence, and Messi said that Gonzales had admitted to failing to make the call.
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“Sometimes there are errors in critical moments,” Messi told Apple TV. “It happened the last game, too. Not excuses, but there are always issues with referees and I think MLS has to look at some of the officiating.”
A game prior, Messi and Suárez were given yellow cards for dissent after angrily confronting the match referee. Four days before that, in a game against the San Jose Earthquakes, Messi was carded again – this time after the match – after an angry confrontation with referee Joe Dickerson, who Messi thought missed a foul in extra time.
The Argentinian has never faced disciplinary action for any of his actions towards referees in MLS. He has twice been disciplined for unrelated actions: he was fined for placing his hands around NYC FC assistant coach Mehdi Ballouchy’s neck in the moments after a match last year and served a one-game suspension last summer for missing the MLS All-Star Game.
