Asian Cup qualifiers with out normal public irks Sunil Chhetri

National soccer icon Sunil Chhetri didn’t disguise his disappointment at no tickets being offered to most people for the Asian Cup Group D qualifiers to be performed on the Salt Lake Stadium from June 8-14, and felt it disadvantaged the Indian group of residence benefit at a time when it wants crowd help probably the most.

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About 20,000 complimentary tickets have been issued, which has resulted within the organisers getting the stadium rent-free. Public sale of tickets would have compelled the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to fork out round Rs 16 lakh per day.

The Indian group could be taking part in in Kolkata, the nation’s soccer hub, after a niche of practically three years and Chhetri would have preferred the gang in his nook as he tried to guide India to the continental championship.

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“When Mohun Bagan played at 4 o’clock (in the AFC Cup), there were 38,000 people. How is it that we are finding it difficult to sell tickets (for 8.30 pm kick-offs) when the national team is playing? The same thing happened in Mumbai. If there are no fans for the game, I understand. When the national team is playing in the Northeast, in Kerala, it’s jam-packed. It doesn’t make sense,” stated the veteran marksman.

The sparse crowd within the stands will make a mockery of residence benefit, Chhetri stated.

Sunil Chhetri (Illustration: Suvajit Dey)

“The least I was expecting was 30,000 because at 4 o’clock, they came for Mohun Bagan. We are happy that we are hosting it (the tournament), but (such little turnout) it would make no difference. When we come to play (here) for Bengaluru FC against Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, we feel it as an away side and it’s intimidating. So, they should fill (the stands) and then we can say we have home advantage. If in a stadium of almost 90,000, only 10,000-15,000 people turn up, then what’s the point of having home advantage? We go to training, there are 100 people, man! (So) I don’t understand how?”

He stated Kolkata was one of many locations the place the nationwide group can anticipate good help.

“There are a few places in my country where you go to play for the national team and we know you are going to get support. Kerala is one of them. Of course, Kanteerava (in Bengaluru) is one of them. But Kolkata is right up there and you feel special here, because they (fans) love their football.”

Lack of star energy

Organisers, alternatively, have cited lukewarm response to a match that includes groups from footballing backwaters as the explanation for much less crowd. India has a FIFA rating of 106, forward of Hong Kong (147), Afghanistan (150) and Cambodia (171).

“Look at the teams playing and their rankings. Do you think fans will throng the stadium? I don’t see more than 10,000 spectators turning up,” a former prime AIFF official stated.

The Salt Lake Stadium has a capability in extra of 70,000.

Salt Lake Stadium.

“The Bengal government has issued instructions that all tickets should be free. See, printing tickets is not an issue but how to distribute them, whom to distribute to is an issue. Yes, they (state government) are giving (us) the stadium free and that’s why tickets (for the matches) have to be free. But we are giving 20,000 tickets, not a very small number,” AIFF director (competitors) Anil Kamath informed The Indian Express, informing that the complimentary tickets would go to the state soccer associations, completely different golf equipment, authorities places of work and from there “to public”. According to him, some tickets could be instantly distributed to the general public on-line.

The AIFF is at present helmed by the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), though tournaments are organised by the Federation’s secretariat. CoA member and former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly made his displeasure recognized. “I told Mr Kamath, if we would have been informed about this earlier, we could have taken the matter to the state government. The state government allowed 100 per cent turnout for IPL matches only a few days ago. We might have helped the organisers in this regard. Now, it’s probably too late. India are playing at home and they deserve crowd support,” Ganguly informed this paper.

Chhetri admitted that the Indian group’s current performances left so much to be desired. “A little bit of negative feeling from the fans that we haven’t been doing well of late. That might be the reason. Last time we played here against Bangladesh and the result (1-1) wasn’t good, the performance wasn’t great. But the support was unbelievable. We will try our best to give them better memories than what we gave them against Bangladesh.”