Hefty Price for Messi Event Ticket; WB Guv Seeks Report from Govt

Kolkata: Argentine football legend Lionel Messi was forced to cut short the Kolkata leg, the first destination of his GOAT India Tour, on Saturday within minutes of his appearance at Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, the Salt Lake Stadium, after thousands of fans, who failed to get a glimpse of the legendary forward even after a long wait, turned violent and invaded the ground to go on a full-scale rampage and looting.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered a probe, Governor C.V. Ananda Bose has demanded the arrest of the organiser and a refund of tickets, each costing about `10,000, for fans. At around 2.30 pm, event organiser Satadru Dutta was arrested by the police.

At the Salt Lake Stadium, Messi walked a short distance on the pitch around 11.30 am and waved briefly towards the stands amid chants of "Messi, Messi". Fans soon realised that he remained tightly cordoned off and barely visible from large sections of the stadium.

The angry spectators alleged that Messi was surrounded by VVIPs, including two Trinamul Congress ministers — Aroop Biswas (sports and youth affairs) and Sujit Basu (fire and emergency services) — and their aides who were busy clicking photos and selfies with him.

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, 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. What unfolded next was 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 aback. Later the rapid action force personnel were deployed. They resorted to a baton charge to disperse the unruly spectators.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who was on her way to the event to felicitate Messi, returned home after learning about the incident.

“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,” Banerjee later posted on X.

The Bengal CM 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 C.V. Ananda Bose demanded the arrest of the organiser and a ticket refund. He 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 of his teammates flew to Hyderabad. He runs a private agency, A Satadru Dutta Initiative, and conducted tours of top Brazilian footballers in the past.

Among other dignitaries present at the event 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 jerseys.

Earlier, the 38-year-old Argentine football captain reached Kolkata late on Friday night with two other Argentine soccer stars — Luis Suárez and Rodrigo De Paul — on a three-day tour covering four cities — Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi. This is his second visit to the city.

On Saturday morning, Messi virtually inaugurated his 70-feet-tall statue at Sreebhumi Sporting Club in Lake Town from a hotel in Salt Lake after meeting Bollywood film actor Shah Rukh Khan. Thereafter Messi and others then left for the stadium.