CHARLES D'SOUZA
MARGAO
The countdown has begun. Regardless of the change of guard at the helm of affairs of FC Goa, crowds braved intermittent rains while shelling out substantially higher sums of money to throng the ticket vending windows at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Monday to keep their date with the opening home fixture of the Goan club in the Indian Super League (ISL).
However there were murmurs in the corridors as opinions varied on the exact quantum of response of football fans at ticket windows, with many pegging the size of crowds to be lower than the previous edition of the ISL. But, be that as it may, the crowds at the ticketing window presented an altogether different picture -- with queues of ticket seekers proving that their spirit of football was not dampened.
For some other fans who were waiting in the wings to pick up tickets for the third ISL, disappointment was writ large on their faces as all tickets were finally sold out, particularly that of Rs 350 denomination.
A cross section of football fans voiced different opinions. One such football fan, Francisco Fernandes of Sarzora, who had camped at the Stadium on Sunday night, said: “FC Goa is in every one's heart. But this year there are new owners from outside (the State). The previous owners -- Shrinivas Dempo and Dattaraj Salgaocar were passionate about football as this game was in their blood.”
Fernandes felt that there is lesser response to the tournament this time as compared to the ISL edition of last year. “FC Goa is a Goan team and the State Government must intervene to see that the owners must be from Goa. This could be the reason for the low turnout for tickets and the rise in rates of the tickets,” he remarked.
Another fan, who bitterly complained about the “chaos” at the venue, said there is no regulating system as regards the sale of tickets of different denominations. “The sale at the counters started late,” he said. Another fan from Verna said the tickets were sold out within hours. "I was astonished to learn that tickets were sold out even as many fans queued up a the tickets counters at dawn," he said.
Another fan was heard bitterly complaining about the non-availability of tickets. “We waited for long with the hope of getting the tickets but went home disappointed and dejected,” said Namdev Naik.
