Messi Chaos Fallout: Organiser Arrested, Mamata Apologises

Kolkata: Football legend Lionel Messi was forced to cut short the Kolkata-leg, the first destination of his G.O.A.T. India Tour, on Saturday for his safety within minutes of his appearance at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, known as Salt Lake Stadium, in the city after thousands of his jubilant fans failed to get a glimpse of him from the gallery following a long wait, turned violent and invaded the ground to go on a full-scale rampage and looting.

The 38-year-old Argentine football captain arrived here late on Friday night with two other soccer stars, Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul, on a three-day tour covering four cities, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. This was his second visit to the city. On Saturday morning, he virtually inaugurated his statue of 70-ft at Sreebhumi Sporting Club in Lake Town from a hotel in Salt Lake after meeting Bollywood filmstar Shah Rukh Khan there.

Messi and others then left for the stadium. The angry spectators however alleged that since Messi walked into the ground at around 11.30 am, he remained surrounded by a heavy VVIP crowd including two Trinamul Congress ministers, Aroop Biswas (sports and youth affairs department) and Sujit Basu (fire and emergency services department), and their aides who were busy to click photos and selfies with him.

Among other dignitaries were former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and two top Mohun Bagan football club officials, Srinjoy Bose and Debashis Dutta, who felicitated Messi with their club jersey. The fans claimed that they did not come to see the local faces after spending thousands of rupees to buy a ticket. They called their disappointment a huge scam and demanded refunds. Each ticket cost ₹10,000 on average.

Within 15 minutes of the start of the event, a chaos broke out when the sea of spectators, agitated over not getting to see Messi, burst into protest and started throwing water bottles from the gallery to the ground. They also uprooted the chairs and large hoardings and threw them down. Messi and two other footballers left the stadium immediately. The fans were aghast. What unfolded next was a vandalism which lasted for almost an hour.

The furious fans broke open the fencing, barriers and gates, fought with the police personnel and occupied the ground. They also attacked the tents, damaged the decorations and torched the seats before looting anything and everything at hand, from flower pots to carpets. The cops looked outnumbered and taken back. Later the rapid action force personnel were deployed. They resorted to lathicharge to disperse the unruly supporters.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was on way to the event to felicitate Messi, returned home after learning about the incident. She later posted on X-handle, “I am deeply disturbed and shocked by the mismanagement witnessed today at Salt Lake Stadium. I was on my way to the stadium to attend the event along with thousands of sports lovers and fans who had gathered to catch a glimpse of their favourite footballer, Lionel Messi.”

She added, “I sincerely apologise to Lionel Messi, as well as to all sports lovers and his fans, for the unfortunate incident. I am constituting an enquiry committee under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Ashim Kumar Ray, with the Chief Secretary and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs Department, as members. The committee will conduct a detailed enquiry into the incident, fix responsibility, and recommend measures to prevent such occurrences in the future. Once again, I extend my heartfelt apologies to all sports lovers.”

Governor CV Ananda Bose demanded the arrest of the organiser and ticket refund and blamed the police for failing to tackle the incident. The BJP also blamed the state government for the mess. At around 2.30 pm, the event organiser, Satadru Dutta, was arrested by the police from the NSCBI Airport after Messi and two others flew to Hyderabad. He runs a private agency, A Satadru Dutta Initiative, and conducted tours of top Brazilian footballers in the past.