Kolkata Stadium Faces Messi Fan Riot

The much-anticipated visit to India by Lionel Messi began on a disorderly note on Saturday when the frustration of fans erupted in Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. The star of Argentina and Inter Miami had to end up his appearance prematurely and the place was just left with less than 20 minutes of his arrival.

As per local media news, fans got outraged tearing out seats in the stadiums and throwing them to the field and athletics track. Eye witnesses reported a tense situation, with a few of the spectators climbing fencing and throwing objects, and security was forced to jump in.

Messi’s trip to India will be one of several multi-city tours which will also involve concerts, youth football clinics, padel tournament, and charitable events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. The fans in the Kolkata stadium were however angry by the restricted accessibility since the football legend was well secured by security personnel and officials with only political leaders and actors being in his vicinity.

Messi was only surrounded by leaders and actors. What was their reason to call us now? asked one of the disappointed fans ANI.

The event did not take long before West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came out in horror at the mismanagement of the incident and proceeded to constitute an enquiry committee to investigate the incident. The committee will also have the responsibility of repairing the blame and proposing actions on ways to avoid such incidences in the future.

West Bengal is among the largest football centers in India, along with Kerala and Goa, and the appearance of Messi would have attracted huge masses of people. The short visit, though, made most of the fans frustrated and dwarfed the excitement of his visit.

The tour authorities are also reviewing security measures during the rest of the Messi tour since his schedule in India goes on with a program schedule in Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi.

The accident raises the issue of dealing with enormous fan demands that surround the world sports stars and why more needs to be done to control the masses in major projects in India.