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Hours after Lionel Messi’s India tour stops in Kolkata Chaos broke out as angry fans broke seats and invaded the grounds, with police in the eastern Indian city blocking the event organizer from leaving amid allegations of mismanagement.
Messi’s GOAT (Greatest of All Time) India journey 2025 Began amid chaos on 13 December Fans at the Salt Lake Stadium in the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal threw objects on the field and broke stadium umbrellas, angering his brief appearance. argentina Footballers at a ticketed event.
Messi is in India as part of a tour during which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics and a padel tournament, and launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Thousands of people waited in line to see Messi in the state known for its love for football. Fans, who had paid up to Rs 12,000 (£100), said the 2022 World Cup champion’s appearance was very brief as he left 20 minutes after his arrival.
According to local reports, thousands of fans in the stands said their view of the football legend was blocked by dozens of officials, organizers and a crowd taking selfies who received VIP treatment.
About 60,000 fans, many of whom turned hostile, had paid between 5,000 rupees to 16,000 rupees (£41 to £132) to catch a glimpse of Messi and said they were disappointed to barely get a glimpse of the footballer.
Soumyadeep Ghosh from Kalighat, one of the attendees, said, “When you buy a ticket for Rs 16,000, you at least expect a clear view of Messi. We have been cheated.” times of India.
Scenes from the event showed the footballer surrounded by security officers and event organizers jostling to get around him.
According to a spokesperson for Messi, the football champion had met the deadlines set for the event and had agreed in advance with the organisers.
Football’s official governing body, the All India Football Federation (AIFF), said it was not involved in any “private event” involving the star.
Kolkata Police officials arrested event organizer Satadru Dutta at the city’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport while he was traveling with Messi to the next stop on his GOAT tour and stopped him from leaving the city.
Mr. Dutta had promoted the event as “A Satadru Dutta Initiative”. A Kolkata court on Saturday denied bail to Mr Dutta and sent him to 14-day police custody.
Senior police officer Javed Shamim confirmed his arrest at a press conference on Saturday evening, adding that “procedures are underway and the investigation is ongoing”.
Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee She said she was “extremely upset and shocked” and apologized to Messi and “sports fans” for the incident.
“I am deeply disturbed and shocked by the mismanagement witnessed today at the 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 favorite footballer.” Lionel MessiI sincerely apologize to Lionel Messi as well as all sports lovers and his fans for this unfortunate incident,”
Announcing the probe, she said, “I am constituting an inquiry committee headed by Justice (Retd) Ashim Kumar Ray, with the Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Home and Hill Affairs as members. The committee will conduct a detailed investigation into the incident, fix responsibility and recommend measures to prevent such incidents in future.”
The incident raised concerns about fans’ behavior as many criticized her “entitlement” on social media.
“No civilized nation behaves the way some self-proclaimed ‘football lovers’ in Kolkata did by destroying public property out of anger and entitlement. While crying about ‘money being wasted’ for not being able to see Messi for a long time, they fail to understand a simple fact: it is their own tax money that will now fund the repairs of this iconic stadium; the repairs will take a very long time,” said an X user. Cricket fanatics The states of West Bengal, Kerala and Goa in India have long been big fans of football.
He said, “This is not passion for the game. This is dysfunction, empowerment and a complete lack of civic sense. There are huge, rabid sports fans in the world, yet no one has stooped this low.”
Messi, who captained Argentina for the first time in a friendly match at the Salt Lake Stadium in a 1-0 win over Venezuela in 2011, virtually unveiled his 70-foot statue in Kolkata on Saturday.
There have been several incidents of fan riots at the Salt Lake Stadium, including a Kolkata derby match between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in 2012, which was abandoned after a brick thrown from the stands hit a player, seriously injuring him.
Argentine football great Diego Maradona visited Kolkata twice and in 2017 unveiled a statue of himself holding the World Cup in the presence of thousands of fans.
The incident also sparked political controversy, with the Bharatiya Janata Party accusing Ms Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress party of turning Kolkata into a “global laughing stock”.
“The epic failure of Mamata Banerjee’s administration at the Salt Lake Stadium has made Kolkata a global laughing stock. She and her inept ministers, who turned a public event into an exclusive private function with access only to a select few, who surrounded the star and managed to hide her from public view, but were forced to pay huge sums to finance the event, led to chaos,” wrote Bengal opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari.