{"id":231643,"date":"2025-12-14T00:18:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/231643\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T00:18:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:18:13","slug":"angry-fans-throw-objects-invade-pitch-after-lionel-messis-brief-appearance-at-india-event-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/231643\/","title":{"rendered":"Angry fans throw objects, invade pitch after Lionel Messi\u2019s brief appearance at India event \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi<\/a>\u2019s tour of India<\/a> kicked off chaotically on Saturday as fans threw objects, ripped up seats, \u200dinvaded the pitch and broke the stage after the soccer great made only a brief stadium appearance, shielded from view by \u200da large entourage.<\/p>\n

Fans in the Salt Lake stadium in Kolkata threw ripped-up stadium seats and other objects on to the field and track, while several people climbed a fence around the field and hurled objects, video from ANI news agency \u200cshowed, after an appearance that lasted just 20 minutes, according to Indian media.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly leaders and actors were surrounding Messi,\u201d a \u2060fan told ANI. Why did they call us then? … We have got a ticket for \u200c12,000 \u200brupees ($130), \u200dbut we were not even able to see his face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organisers of Argentina and Inter Miami forward\u2019s tour of India did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.<\/p>\n

\"LionelLionel Messi arrives at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata before the chaotic scenes. Photograph: Dibyangshu SARKAR \/ AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Messi is in India as part of a tour during \u2060which he is scheduled to attend concerts, youth football clinics, a padel tournament and launch charitable \u2060initiatives at events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai \u2060and New Delhi.<\/p>\n

The chief minister of West Bengal state, Mamata Banerjee, apologised to Messi and ordered an inquiry into the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am deeply disturbed and shocked \u200dby the mismanagement witnessed today at Salt Lake stadium,\u201d Banerjee, who was on her way to the event when chaos broke out, posted on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely apologise to Lionel Messi, as well as to all sports lovers and his fans, for the unfortunate incident,\u201d she said. \u201cI am constituting an inquiry committee … the committee will conduct a detailed enquiry into the incident, fix responsibility, and recommend measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FansFans throw bottles and chairs and vandalise hoardings at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Photograph: Piyal Adhikary\/EPA <\/p>\n

West \u200cBengal, Kerala and Goa states \u200chave long had large soccer followings in otherwise cricket-crazed India.<\/p>\n

Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona twice visited Kolkata and in 2017 unveiled a statue of himself holding the \u200cWorld Cup, in the presence of thousands of fans.<\/p>\n

Messi, who played in a friendly match at the Salt Lake Stadium \u2060in 2011 in which Argentina defeated Venezuela 1-0, virtually unveiled a 70ft statue of himself in Kolkata on Saturday. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi\u2019s tour of India kicked off chaotically on Saturday as fans threw objects, ripped up seats, \u200dinvaded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,47903,13,14,6,789,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-231643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-fbl","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-horizontal","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115715054494979349","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}