After almost a decade, the renovated Salt Lake Stadium turned tumultuous. Nearly 45 thousand ‘madding crowd’, completely down in the dumps, burst out of anger and vandalized a major portion of the seats in the stadium’s lower tier, threw water bottles relentlessly to the ground, cracked the banners set on the galleries and finally flooded themselves to the ground, breaking the barrier!
The ground was turned into a sea of rampaging spectators towards the police. A few of the police personnel even got injured. In return, police also beat them, and even photographers who were doing their duties were attacked.
The reason can be assumed. The passionate fans wanted to see their hero in Lionel Messi’s first GOAT tour that started with Kolkata on Saturday, 13th December at Salt Lake Stadium. They were waiting for the legend since morning. But Messi was not visible!
He entered the stadium at 11.30 sharp, coming out of a car and started walking down the pitch. Immediately after he, along with his two Inter Miami mates, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul, began to walk, a chunk of people, consisting of security, officials, and a section of the organizing team, surrounded them like a beehive! And despite repeated announcements to free the ground so that the spectators could see him, they never left the pitch!
According to sources close to West Bengal Police, plans had been made to arrange a hood-open car for the legendary footballer who was supposed to circle the stadium ground before walking down the pitch and participating in a brief session with the kids who were waiting for their hero since Saturday morning on the ground.
Why was the plan changed, and under whose instruction? One of the police officers revealed on condition of anonymity, “Rehearsal was also made on Thursday and Friday. Two hood-open cars were arranged. One was scheduled to take Messi, and Chief Minister Mamata Bandopadhyay, also invited to the function, was supposed to circle the ground. We do not know how it changed in the eleventh hour.”
Messi, who unveiled his 70-foot iron statue virtually from the hotel on Saturday morning, was also supposed to watch the exhibition football match, which could not be played for more than 15 minutes. He was supposed to stay at the stadium for one hour, but he was there for only 14 minutes!
Shah Rukh Khan, also invited to the function, could not step in. Amidst the furious fans’ agitation across the stadium complex, seeking a refund of the high-priced tickets, King Khan returned after waiting for around 20 minutes.
Director General of West Bengal Police Rajeev Kumar told the media during his post-event briefings, “Organizer of the Messi’s GOAT tour Satadru Dutta has been arrested. He has also given in writing that all the spectators will get refunds. Chief Minister has set a two-member committee for the investigation of the event, as it was a big chaos.”
Chief Minister, who also had to return before entering the stadium, has sought an apology to the crowd, to Lionel Messi in her tweets. But, football-loving Kolkata had already suffered a face-losing by that time!
