Lionel Messi in Kerala: Australia, Saudi -Arabia charged with Argentina in November

They will. They won’t. They will. They won’t.

Now they will indeed. After all, Argentina of Lionel Messi plays a friendly football international in Kerala.

After a few months of uncertainty, in which the Kerala sports minister had to announce that Argentina would play, and then that they would not, the Argentinian football federation (AFA) himself confirmed on Saturday that her national team would play in Kerala in November. The game is played at the Greenfield Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.

The competition is organized by Reporter Broadcasting Company. «Although we received the e -mail a few days ago from the AFA that Argentina would play in Kerala in November, we did not announce and waited for them to say the first,» said Anto Augustine, director of Reporter, Sports star On Saturday by telephone from Kochi.

«There had been so much negativity in the media about the match of recent times, so we thought it was better if the AFA first made it official.»

He said that a decision would be made soon about the rival of Argentina before the competition. «We look at teams such as Australia, Saudi Aarabia and Qatar,» he said. «We also try to get Brazil. We hope to complete the team within a week.»

Apart from the competition, the Argentinian team will also hold a fan meeting that could be at Kozhikode. «In our agreement, the AFA said they would have a 45 -minute fan meeting,» said Anto. «We did not complete the location for that, but we think that Kozhikode or Malappuram would be ideal, given the love for football in the Malabar region.»

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He said the competition around INR 400 CRORE could cost. «Because two national teams play, we believe that finance would not be a problem,» he said. «We have already started getting enough sponsors.»

Anto pointed out that his company had come into the picture about seven months ago, after the first sponsor had been withdrawn.

«We were always sure that the game would continue,» he said. «We had signed the agreement with the AFA for the match that would be played in October or November. But in June they told that they would be interested in playing next year instead. We were not ready. We wanted Argentina to come to Kerala this year. I think this is why the whole thing became such a controversy.»

Published on August 23, 2025