Football: ₹150 crore for Lionel Messi, but no support for Indian Football?

by Devesh Jaganath

image Football: ₹150 crore for Lionel Messi, but no support for Indian Football?
While Lionel Messi’s ‘GOAT Tour 2025’ was a massive move for sports in India, bringing the footballing icon to Indian shores also came with a hefty price tag. The GOAT Tour has received mixed emotions, with some feeling that worshipping overseas icons has been given greater importance than resurrecting football locally.

Messi’s GOAT Tour raises serious questions over India’s football priorities

Lionel Messi, along with his clubmates at Inter Miami in the MLS, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul, have completed their ‘GOAT Tour 2025,’ but with the amount spent to bring the footballing icon to India, questions are now being raised over where India’s football priorities lie. 

Reports in recent days have revealed that around ₹150 crore was mobilised to make the Argentine’s tour possible, and certain factions, especially Indian football players, have been left feeling unappreciated, given the current state of local football in the country. 

At the moment, India’s top flight, the Indian Super League, is in a state of limbo, placed on hold indefinitely with no resolution in sight. Players and club staff remain uncertain of their futures, while some teams have completely shut down operations until further notice. 

On top of the staggering ₹150 crore appearance fee that was believed to be paid to Messi, more than 50,000 fans turned out to see the Herons’ captain and were willing to pay anything from ₹4,300 ($47) per ticket, up to around ₹50,000 ($550) for more exclusive packages. 

Following the conclusion of the Tour, Indian international Sandesh Jhingan took to social media to air his views on the amount of money spent and make clear that he wished fans would turn their attention inwards, given the current crisis local football faces. He wrote:

“What troubles me, and leaves me deeply reflective, is that at a time when our own football ecosystem is in jeopardy, arguably facing one of its most difficult phases, we stand on the brink of having no active domestic football ahead of us.

“It feels as though we are close to shutting everything down because there is no willingness to invest in football within India, yet crores were spent on this tour. What this tells me is that we do love the sport, but perhaps not enough to support our own players.”

Jhingan went on to acknowledge that the Indian national team’s performances have been well below the level expected from fans, but stood firm that improvement can only be made after a complete systematic overhaul is made behind the scenes. 

India remains 142nd in FIFA’s latest world rankings

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India plummeted six places in FIFA’s ranking list published on November 20, and following a string of disappointing results, the Blue Tigers' position remained unchanged at 142nd according to the global governing body’s latest rankings released on Monday. 

The current ranking adds to the wider concerns surrounding the domestic structure and tosses the Indian Super League’s future into greater doubt, with potential commercial partners being deterred from investing in a league that is seemingly going nowhere. 

India have already been knocked out of qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup to be held in Saudi Arabia, but they will play their final group stage match - albeit a dead rubber - against Hong Kong on March 31, 2026.