First things first, Satadru Dutta, the sports promoter from Rishra, was either too naive or too clever by half. Lionel Messi’s GOAT Tour, A Satadru Dutta Initiative, was his most ambitious project yet. He had organised the visits of Pele, Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho before. But they were the stars of yore. Messi, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, is still the world’s biggest sporting personality, notwithstanding that he is 38 years old and currently plies his trade in Major League Soccer (MLS).
He is also a current World Cup winner. For a vast section of football fans in Kolkata, Fifa’s quadrennial showpiece still remains their tenuous link to the global game. That’s why a great player like Luis Suarez went almost unnoticed. It felt like the Liverpool legend was roaming in his hometown. Dutta should have pre-empted that his event could be hijacked by the VIPs. Throughout the entire episode, including the build-up, he kept professionalism at arm’s length.
Credit to police for showing restraint. Else, on Saturday, the Salt Lake Stadium could have turned into a Hillsborough or a Heysel. Anger flowed because the fans felt cheated. They could barely catch a glimpse of their favourite star. Thankfully, there was no loss of life. Yes, the stadium was vandalised, but the damage is not irreparable.
The opening leg of Lionel Messi’s GOAT Tour in Kolkata was shambolically organised. Sample this — a small-time film actor was seen taking centre stage at Salt Lake Stadium, gazumping the great man. Who allowed her to be there? What was her locus standi? Why did so many people enter the pitch? Who were they? Dutta should have roped in a competent events management company. A professional emcee should have hosted the show. Given the incompetence at every step, the Messi show was always going to turn messy.
In terms of organisation and promotion, the Kolkata leg of the GOAT Tour was diabolical, starting with a poorly-crafted 70ft statue of Messi that stunk the place out. Thank goodness that Dutta eventually refrained from taking the Argentine legend to the narrow bylanes of Lake Town to unveil the statue, for that could have caused a stampede.
Over the last three months, in the lead-up to the event, Dutta’s well-wishers repeatedly asked him to come up with a proper crowd management plan. The chief promoter should have planned it better. He relied on jugaad.
Now, we move to the administrative part. Did the local administration ask for documented plans for crowd security, ticketing systems and safety protocols before giving the approval to organise the event? Were there enough security personnel at the venue to deal with any eventuality? Dutta didn’t organise an event of this magnitude before. The boxes should have been ticked.
Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, has ordered an inquiry under a retired judge. Hope it would be time-bound, and if anyone is found guilty, that person shouldn’t be spared.
The mismanagement reached to handing over the media accreditations as well. On Sunday evening, there’s an event at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. This correspondent, with nearly three-decade-long experience of covering sport, including Messi’s games, wasn’t given approval. Who did the shortlisting? Who actually got the accreditations?
RevSportz will not cover the events in Mumbai. The whole thing has already left a bad taste. We don’t want to be part of it. We stand in solidarity with the fans in Kolkata.
Follow Revsportz for latest sports news
