Messi, Alves in hotel bust-up with fans

Lionel Messi and Dani Alves were involved in an altercation at the Grosvenor House Hotel just hours before Barcelona’s Champions League semi-final, first-leg defeat to Chelsea.

James McWatt, 19, and his friend Steve Carruthers, 21, bumped into the pair in the corridor and asked Messi to sign a Barcelona shirt, but Alves started shouting angrily at them in Spanish.

A club security guard then intervened, the police were called and the fans, together with two other friends, were asked to leave the £350-a-night five-star hotel.

“He was just about to when Daniel Alves put his arm in the way and started screaming at us ‘No’.” McWatt said.

“He started going mental at us – shouting and screaming in Spanish. I walked away and heard it getting really heated and filmed it.

“We returned to our rooms. But later hotel staff and two police officers came in and told us the Barcelona team wanted us out.”

He added, “We hadn’t been drinking and weren’t rowdy, just excited in anticipation of meeting Messi.

“The incident was unbelievable. My respect for Barcelona has been destroyed.”

The Manchester-based group, who were visiting from Manchester, have now been banned for life from the hotel.