West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata: Organiser Satadru Dutta has squarely blamed security agencies and law enforcement for the chaos surrounding Argentine legend Lionel Messi’s appearance in Kolkata during the GOAT India Tour 2025, alleging that the local authorities' “complete failure” to implement the high-level security arrangements planned for the event.
Speaking to IANS, Dutta claimed the programme had been organised under stringent protocols because of the presence of several high-profile personalities, including Messi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah Rukh Khan, and Sourav Ganguly.
“In a nutshell, I will tell you, it's a complete failure of police, it's a complete failure of Z category security, Z plus security, Z category was issued by the Home Ministry to State Government, that failed and the Chief Minister enjoys Z plus, she was supposed to, she was his chief guest, she was entering the stadium within five minutes, right, before the message left, so it was basically a very high-profile tight event in case of security, so there is a huge failure of security,” Dutta told IANS.
Dutta stated that multiple meetings had been conducted with police and security officials before the event and insisted that all operational details had been formally shared in advance.
“I thought it's a very, very secure event, we made at least 16 to 20 meetings, I took all sort of permissions, everything I took, I thought it's a, you know, the show flow was given to the police, we discussed the show flow, accreditation cards, who will be in the field of play and who will not be in the field of play, everything was being shared to the police,” he said.
According to Dutta, security access and movement around Messi had been strictly planned. “Then, proximity, proximity card was issued, those who can be close to Messi, so it was 8 to 10 people were allowed, and most importantly, the show flow was micro level, each second by second was divided,” he added.
The organiser further revealed that senior police officials were briefed about the arrangements days before the programme.
According to Dutta, security access and movement around Messi had been strictly planned. “Then, proximity, proximity card was issued, those who can be close to Messi, so it was 8 to 10 people were allowed, and most importantly, the show flow was micro level, each second by second was divided,” he added.
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The event later came under intense scrutiny after crowd disorder and alleged breaches of protocol overshadowed Messi’s much-anticipated appearance in Kolkata.