Sponsor can take a legal story if Messi’s Argentina does not play in Kerala this year

The temporary employment agency of the reporter, the commercial partner of the Kerala government for bringing the Argentina football team and his star Messi to Kerala, has said that it may be forced to take legal story if the world cup champion does not play in the state in October or November this year.

Reporter, the sponsor for the team’s visit to Kerala, said that on 6 June this year it had paid the full amount of RS 130 Crore to the Argentina Football Association according to the agreement signed with the AFA in December 2024.

«According to the agreement, we had sent the full amount, and they (AFA) also acknowledged that they had received it. But after five days we received an e -mail asking if we had the competition in September 2026,» said Anto Augustine, the director of Reporter, Tuesday.

«That violates the conditions of the agreement that we have with the AFA. We are not good with it. According to our agreement with the AFA, the deal to have the competition in October-November this year. They even told us that the competition could be held in October and we had met all the conditions according to the agreement.»

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The next World Cup is held in June-Juli 2026 in Canada, Mexico and the US, and Augustine believes that the scene can be very different after the event.

«We are interested in having the competition only this year, according to the agreed conditions. If the agreement is not honored, there will be a huge financial loss. So we may have to treat this legally,» he said.

The Kerala Sports Minister V. Abdurahiman, who often announced that Argentina would play in Kerala in October, told the media in Kozhikode on Monday that the team would not visit Kerala this year. The minister explained that Argentina had problems visiting the state in October.

Augustine of Reporter Broadcasting Company did not think it was appropriate to announce that Messi and Argentina would not come to Kerala until the Argentina Fa officially announces that the team would not play in the state this year.