Inter Miami fans wage silent protest against Lionel Messi-led team over treatment by players

The honeymoon is starting to come to an end between Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami and some of its most diehard supporters. For 84 minutes during Sunday’s 2-0 Inter Miami victory over Nashville SC, the club’s main supporters section remained silent as the supporters’ group “La Familia” protested the team’s unappreciative attitude toward its fans. It left the usually raucous atmosphere of banging drums, flags flying and supporters chanting throughout the game eerily silent. The situation took another turn when the fans finally broke their silence in the 85th minute and began chanting in Spanish, “Players, salute your fans, acknowledge your people, who ask nothing else of you!”Video posted online showed Messi appearing to glare in the direction of the supporters’ section and even seemed to sarcastically gesture toward them as they chanted their demand for respect. The frustration stems from the Inter Miami players reportedly not following soccer tradition and clapping for their fans after a match. Miami players are said to have not done so in four previous matches and even on Sunday, only a select group of players had gone over to thank the fans after the win. Messi, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul all walked right off the field to the locker room without going to applaud the supporters’ section. Messi did not address the controversy after the match. The soccer icon very rarely addresses the media, which has become a controversy in and of itself recently.“Inter Miami is a huge club because of the players who have been champions and won many things, the people made their display, but I have no opinion on it,” interim coach Guillermo Hoyos told reporters after the match, according to the Miami Herald.German Berterame, who scored in the win, told reporters that the protest “was surprising” but that he also understands their point. “They have a point because they deserve that we recognize them,” Berterame said.“The important thing...