Messi in Kolkata: Ultimate despair of fans

Dec 14, 2025 - By Ashutosh Roy Current Affairs

TMC Leaders Turned a Historic Visit of Messi into Chaos

Lionel Messi came to Kolkata. He also visited the Salt Lake Stadium. However, countless Bengalis could not see the World Cup-winning football magician they admire and dream of. This happened because of the excessive enthusiasm of Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers. The administration of Mamata Banerjee arrested Satadru Dutta.

Football-crazy fans entered the stadium after buying expensive tickets and standing in line all night in Kolkata, the Mecca of football. Moreover, they did not just lose sleep because of standing in the queue for entrance. Since the stadium banned food and water bottles, many remained almost hungry.

Reports suggest that vendors sold a ₹10 water bottle for as much as ₹150.Therefore, the burden went beyond purchasing costly tickets. They also endured long hours in queues and wasted extra money on overpriced food and water. Not only people from Kolkata, but enthusiastic fans also came from different parts of India.

Overenthusiastic TMC

They saw Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers, including Sujit Bose and Arup Biswas, surrounding Messi with their entire entourage. Meanwhile, Arup Biswas allegedly behaved in an objectionable manner and almost pulled Messi by the hand to take a photograph with him. When organizer Satadru Dutta tried to stop him, Biswas reportedly continued to force the issue. Soon, those images went viral on social media. As a result, spectators spent huge amounts of money and endured immense hardship. Yet, the Trinamool Congress ministers deprived them from the chance to catch a glimpse of their dream football icon.

Their patience finally snapped. Blinded by anger, they resorted to vandalism. The administration deployed a large group of  police  at the ground.  However, neither Satadru Dutta nor the police dared to confront the heavyweight Trinamool Congress ministers. In any case, the police already carry a bad reputation for acting as party loyalists of the Trinamool Congress.

Mamata’ act on Messi Chaos

Mamata Banerjee herself could not reach the stadium.  She started for the stadium, but suddenly her convoy tool a U-turn. However, when she realized that the incident could trigger a negative public reaction, she expressed regret on social media. Subsequently, the administration arrested Satadru Dutta at the airport. He reportedly gave a written undertaking to refund the ticket money to everyone. Although this sounds simple, it is an extremely difficult task.

Meanwhile, she formed a judicial commission under the leadership of a former judge. There is little chance that the report will come to broad day light before the next election. During Mamata Banerjee’s tenure, many judicial commissions have been set up. However, most of their reports have still not come into public. This has now become a common practice in Bengal. The government spends large sums of public money on forming these committees. Yet, for unknown reasons, it never releases their reports. In the end, football-crazy Bengalis never got to see Messi at all.

Event Management: Conflict with the past

In this context, the state held many major events during the tenure of the late Sports Minister Subhas Chakraborty. Yet, such chaos never occurred. Even Messi’s predecessor, Diego Maradona, visited the same Salt Lake Stadium. In fact, Subhas Chakraborty managed events so flawlessly that he never needed to hire a professional event management agency. Moreover, no one ever questioned his ability to control disorder. People say that Mamata Banerjee shared a close relationship with Subhas Chakraborty. If she had learned even a little from him in this regard, the situation might have been different. After all, across the world, successors learn from their predecessors.

In conclusion, the excitement and enthusiasm surrounding Messi’s visit to Kolkata were completely crushed on the ground because of the actions of a few Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers.

The hall of fame of the city Kolkata as the mecca of the Indian Football has gone to the dust.