Qatar Football Association puts full stop to Kerala’s Messi-Argentina saga
Kerala had hoped to secure Messi and Argentina for a friendly in the last week of the FIFA window in March, but the announcement of Qatar Football Festival has ended that dream.
Kerala had hoped to secure Messi and Argentina for a friendly in the last week of the FIFA window in March, but the announcement of Qatar Football Festival has ended that dream.
Kerala had hoped to secure Messi and Argentina for a friendly in the last week of the FIFA window in March, but the announcement of Qatar Football Festival has ended that dream.
An announcement from the Qatar Football Association (QFA) has officially ended Kerala's remaining hope of hosting Lionel Messi and his World Cup-winning Argentina squad in March.
The QFA have announced the Qatar Football Festival, a series of friendlies alongside the Finalissima, which will feature Copa America winners Argentina and European Champions Spain on March 27.
The festival, scheduled to run between March 26 and 31, will also feature Egypt, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, and hosts Qatar. The event will conclude with a friendly contest between Qatar and Argentina at the Lusail Stadium on March 31.
With the FIFA window for March shutting on the same day, it can be said with certainty that Kerala's faint hope of bringing Messi to its shores, after the Finalissima, is now over.
After March, the next FIFA window is between June 1 and 9, following which the national teams will be involved in the World Cup to be held from June 11 to July 19. The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Kerala's Sports Minister V Abdurahiman and a private investor, whom the government introduced as a sponsor, had repeatedly claimed that their ambitious project to bring Messi to the state, which did not happen in a couple of FIFA windows in 2025, would happen by March 2026.
Kerala government's earlier claim that they had secured Messi and Argentina to play in Kochi on November 17, 2025, fell through, allegedly due to FIFA's refusal to approve the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium at Kaloor. The incident caused major embarrassment to the state.
To make matters worse for the stakeholders, Messi and his superstar friends Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul, visited four Indian cities as part of a G.O.A.T India Tour in December 2025. A visit to the south Indian city of Hyderabad was the closest Messi came to Kerala. He also attended promotional events in Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi.
The minister and the sponsor had also declared Australia as Argentina's opponents for the friendly in Kochi, though the Socceroos never made an announcement.