Kolkata: It is said that the love and passion for the game of football at Kolkata can challenge the craziest footballing nations around the world. The City of Joy has been proving it time and again in the FIFA U17 World Cup 2017. The Quarter Final between Brazil and Germany recorded 66,613 attendance at the Salt Lake Stadium. The trend continues for the epic semi final as well. The football passionate city responded unbelievably after the game got shifted its venue from Guwahati to Kolkata for poor ground conditions.
The FIFA LOC made it clear that the tickets would be available only on online and the preference will be given on ‘first come, first serve’ basis. The online ticket sales started at 8:30pm last night and the way people started responding it, created a possibility to crash the FIFA website even, such has been the enthusiasm. The long online queue also made people wait for their turn and many of them found that the tickets have been sold out within 5 hours of the start of the ticket sales.
It was declared that those who booked their tickets online, can only collect their tickets on Tuesday from Salt Lake Stadium gate no.1 and gate no.4. But a few rumours led the people to go at the stadium with a hope that they can buy tickets on cash as well, which has not been the case. The people could only collect their tickets if they had the confirmation mail with its code. Frustration started to creep in when the fans were told from the counters that the confirmation mail is not sufficient, as the confirmation code is mandatory to collect the tickets. The scorching heat and the long queue in front of the counters, also led the people to get impatient a bit. Not just the normal football fans, former star footballers like 5 times’ I-League winning goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal too was found standing in the queue to collect his tickets.
Though Mr.Joy Bhattacharya, on behalf of the FIFA LOC announced that the priced tickets ‘might be’ available on the match day from the East bengal, Mohun Bagan, Mohun Bagan and Milan Mela Ground.
No doubt, Kolkata is proving every second why it is called the Mecca of Indian football.