West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has announced free tickets for the India-Uruguay international friendly on October 6 for fans who bought tickets for Lionel Messi’s Kolkata event last year but were unable to watch the Argentine superstar, according to reports.
The announcement came after India’s high-profile friendly against Brazil at the Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday, where India suffered a 4-0 defeat against a strong Brazilian lineup. The India-Brazil match drew significant attention, with Brazil fielding a strong squad featuring several established stars. However, large sections of the 85,000-capacity Salt Lake Stadium remained empty.
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Adhikari said around 22,000 spectators affected by the problems surrounding Messi’s visit would be given free tickets for the India-Uruguay match.
The beneficiaries are expected to be fans who had purchased tickets online for last year’s event but were unable to watch Messi amid the chaos at the stadium.
“I want to convey this through the media to the people who missed out on the Messi event, some 22,000 of them — we (the West Bengal Government) will announce a WhatsApp number through which they can collect their free tickets for the Uruguay match (on October 6),” Adhikari said, as reported by Sportstar.
India will return to the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday to take on two-time FIFA World Cup champions Uruguay.
Adhikari noted that his government was considering greater support for Indian football and would look to draw inspiration from Odisha’s model of developing hockey.
“Our honourable governor (RN Ravi) and the MoS (Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs) have said that the Odiha government is (financially) supporting hockey, and that we should think of doing so in football. Football means Kolkata, and vice versa,” Adhikari said.
“If any state does good work, we will watch and learn from them. Regarding hockey, the Odisha government did an extraordinary job. We can follow it (the model) for football,” Adhikari said.