JOIN USThough it was heartening to see some 20,000 fans pack the Ambedkar Stadium stands with seating capacity of 17,000, chaos prevailed as some 1000 fans were denied entry and police had to resort to baton charge to bring the crowd in control. The DSA had to bear the blame for the situation as it had distributed passes and printed tickets far more than the capacity of the stadium.
An official told IANS that All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel was upset with the DSA’s move and had asked his secretary to talk to the Delhi police commissioner to chalk out a security plan.
The DSA, however, was happy to see the packed house and did not mind losing out on gate money to see the stands filled for the Nehru Cup. DSA secretary N.K. Bhatia said his association distributed thousands of passes in a bid to attract crowds, who till a decade or so ago regularly flocked the stadium to watch two of the country’s most popular football tournaments, the Durand Cup and the DCM Trophy.
Bhatia said that the DSA couldn’t make much out of gate collection despite the fact that more than 75,000 spectators turned out for the five group matches and a full house Monday. “It is unfortunate that despite a good turnout we were not able to generate money from tickets. In Delhi there is no culture of buying tickets to watch sport so we had to print a lot of invitations and complimentary tickets instead of priced tickets. And the number of tickets sold were negligible,” Bhatia said.