Inside the chaos at Kolkata stop of Messi’s India tour as angry fans rip up seats: ‘We have been scammed’
Around 60,000 fans, many of whom turned hostile, had paid between £41 and £132 to see Messi
Hours after the Kolkata stop of Lionel Messi's India tour descended into mayhem as angry fans ripped up seats and invaded the field, police in the eastern Indian city stopped the organiser of the event from flying out amid allegations of mismanagement.
Messi’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) India Tour 2025 kicked off amid chaos on 13 December as fans at the Salt Lake stadium in the capital of the eastern state of West Bengal threw objects onto the field and dismantled canopies, angry at the brief appearance by the Argentina footballer at the 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 to launch charitable initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and New Delhi.
Thousands had 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 too brief as he left 20 minutes after his arrival.
According to local reports, thousands of fans in the stands said the view of the football legend was blocked by dozens of officials receiving VIP treatment, organisers, and a selfie-seeking crowd.
Around 60,000 fans, many of whom turned hostile, had paid between Rs 5,000 to Rs 16,000 (£41 to £132) for a glimpse of Messi and said they were disappointed at barely being able to see the footballer.
“When you buy a Rs 16,000 ticket, you expect at least a clear view of Messi. We have been scammed,” said Soumyadeep Ghosh of Kalighat, one of the attendees, according to the Times of India.
Visuals of the event showed the footballer surrounded by security officials and event organisers jostling to be around him.
According to a spokesperson for Messi, the football champion had fulfilled the time slot committed to the event and agreed in advance with the organisers.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF), the official governing body of football, said it was not involved in the "private event" involving the star.
Kolkata Police officials arrested event organiser Satadru Dutta from the city’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport while he was accompanying Messi to the next stop on his GOAT tour and blocked 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 remanded him to 14 days of police custody.
Senior police official Jawed Shamim confirmed his arrest in a press conference on Saturday evening, adding that “processes are on and investigations are on”.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she was "deeply disturbed and shocked" and apologised to Messi and “sport lovers” for the incident.
“I am deeply disturbed and shocked by the mismanagement witnessed today at 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 favourite footballer, Lionel Messi. I sincerely apologise to Lionel Messi, as well as to all sports lovers and his fans, for the unfortunate incident,” she said.
Announcing a probe, she said: “I am constituting an enquiry committee under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Ashim Kumar Ray, with the Chief Secretary and the Additional Chief Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs Department, as members. The committee will conduct a detailed enquiry into the incident, fix responsibility, and recommend measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.”
The incident sparked concerns around the behaviour of fans as many on social media called out their “entitlement”.
“No civilised nation behaves the way some self-styled ‘football lovers’ in Kolkata did by vandalising public property out of rage and entitlement. Crying over ‘wasted money’ for not seeing Messi longer, they fail to grasp a simple fact: it’s their own tax money that will now fund repairs to this iconic stadium; repairs that will take a very long time,” said an X user. West Bengal, Kerala and Goa states have long had large soccer followings in otherwise cricket-crazed India.
“This isn’t passion for sport. It’s dysfunction, entitlement, and a complete absence of civic sense. The world has far bigger, crazier sports fanbases yet none stoop this low,” she added.
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 a 70-foot statue of himself in Kolkata earlier on Saturday.
Multiple incidents of fan riots have taken place at Salt Lake stadium, including during 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 soccer great Diego Maradona twice visited Kolkata, and in 2017 unveiled a statue there of himself holding the World Cup in the presence of thousands of fans.
The incident also triggered a political row, with the Bharatiya Janata Party accusing Ms Banerjee’s ruling Trinamool Congress party of turning Kolkata into a “global laughing stock”.
“Mamata Banerjee’s administration’s epic failure at the Salt Lake Stadium has turned Kolkata into a global laughingstock. She and her inefficient ministers, who turned the public event into an exclusive private function with access to only a select few, who swamped the star and managed to hide him from the public view, but were made to pay huge amounts to fund the event, triggered off the chaos," wrote Bengal’s leader of opposition, Suvendu Adhikari.
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