Lionel Messi's tour of India kicked off on a chaotic note on Saturday as fans ripped up seats and threw them onto the pitch after his brief visit to the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata, the ANI news agency reported.
Messi is in India as part of his “GOAT” tour during which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics, a Padel tournament and launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.
According to reports in Indian media, the 2022 World Cup winner walked around the pitch at the stadium waving to the fans, but was closely surrounded by a large group of people and left 20 minutes after arrival.
Video from ANI showed fans throwing ripped-up stadium seats and other objects onto the field and the athletics track at the site, with several people who had climbed over a fence surrounding the playing field hurling objects.
Messi was scheduled for a 45-minute visit to the stadium, but his appearance lasted just 20 minutes. Tickets for the event were priced from around 3,500 rupees ($38.65) – more than half of the average weekly income in India – but one fan said he had paid $130 (£99).
“Only leaders and actors were surrounding Messi... Why did they call us then? We have got a ticket for 12 thousand rupees [$132.51, £99], but we were not even able to see his face,” a fan at the stadium told ANI.
The organisers of Messi's tour of India did not immediately reply to a request for a comment, but Satadru Dutta, the event’s chief organiser, has been detained by police, said Rajeev Kumar, director general of West Bengal police.
Kumar told reporters: “We’ve already detained the main organiser. We’re taking action so that this mismanagement does not go unpunished. He has already pledged in writing that tickets sold for the event should be refunded.”
The chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, apologised to Messi and ordered a probe into the incident.
“I am deeply disturbed and shocked by the mismanagement witnessed today at Salt Lake stadium," Banerjee, who was on her way to the event when chaos broke out, posted on X. “I sincerely apologise to Lionel Messi, as well as to all sports lovers and his fans, for the unfortunate incident.”
Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, which, along with the states of Kerala and Goa, has long had a large football fanbase in an otherwise cricket-crazed country.
Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona twice visited Kolkata and, in 2017, unveiled a statue of himself holding the World Cup, in the presence of thousands of fans.
Messi, who played a friendly match at the Salt Lake stadium in 2011 in which Argentina defeated Venezuela 1-0, virtually unveiled a 70-foot statue of himself in the city earlier on Saturday.
Reuters
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