The mess that unfolded on Saturday in the Salt Lake Stadium in Bidhannagar on the outskirts of Kolkata, where a massive crowd had gathered to see Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain and superstar Lionel Messi, has once again brought into sharp focus the star culture in Indian sport and the VIP culture in Indian society, two ills that see no signs of abating. The fact that vast sums of money are sunk into bringing football legends to Kolkata, long considered the Mecca of the game in India, is a case of warped priorities when the game itself is struggling to survive as the crisis in the AIFF (All India Football Federation) goes from bad to worse.
From the immortal Brazilian Pele to the legendary Argentine genius Diego Maradona and many others in between, including Messi himself, who had earlier visited in 2011 (without such scenes), Kolkata has seen some of the all-time greats of football. But these have been largely in the form of celebrity spotting rather than any constructive grassroots movement, which is the crying need of football in India today. Pele did play a match for the New York Cosmos against Kolkata’s famous Mohun Bagan club in 1977 at the iconic Eden Gardens. But that was in the twilight of his fabled career. He made another flying visit in 2015. Fan frenzy often gets out of hand in Kolkata, a volatile city that has seen violence break out at cricket and football matches since the 1960s.
This time Messi’s GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) India Tour ran into rough weather on its very first leg, with members of the ruling All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) hogging the spotlight at the stadium, with most of the crowd ire directed at state Sports Minister Arup Biswas. Surrounded on all sides by police and jostling politicians clamouring for selfies, the crowd, which paid exorbitant rates, barely caught a glance of their hero and his Inter Miami club team-mates, Luis Suarez and Rodrigo de Paul. Their fury erupted in violence as Messi and Co. spent just 20 minutes in the stadium, leaving the chaotic scene before it could get out of hand. The only saving grace is there were no injuries. For that we can say a silent prayer of thanks, but that does not, in any way, exonerate the mismanagement which the AITC has laid squarely at the doorstep of the organiser of the show, who has been arrested and produced in court. At this stage it appears to be a case of scapegoating by the ruling party in a bid to buck-pass and wash their own hands of the entire fiasco.
