In 1964, Roald Dahl wrote a book that
was arguably his most popular: ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’. The book
spoke of 5 hidden Golden Tickets that held immense promise. Yet, fast forward
50 years and it is highly likely that any of the ticket holders would swap
their fortunes to have an FC Goa ticket instead. They may be more in number,
but are apparently even harder to come by.
These tickets were put up for grabs on December 13 and 14,
from 10 am to 4 pm. And with tickets being hard to come by, people spent the
night outside the venue with renewed hope that maybe, just maybe, they would be
able to sneak away with a ticket to watch their heroes on the pitch, but most
failed in their endeavours.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
One such fan and Facebook user, named Joshua Jones, took to
social media to report of the ticket sale fiasco at the venue, saying, “People
standing in the queue since 6 am, including myself, were denied tickets at
Fatorda. There were protests outside the stadium. A huge posse of cops was
present with riot gear in hand. The cops seemed to be at a loss for words to
explain the situation. It’s a scam. A lot of videos were recorded of the event
and there were chants of ‘Forca Goa’ in the air. Mayhem!”
The sale of tickets in black has been a nuisance that raised
its ugly head ever since the resurgence of FC Goa’s form. Fans have been
clamouring to get their hands on them to no avail. From the Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, to the indoor stadium in Panjim, the scenes have been
identical much to the fans’ dismay. Die-hard Liverpool and FC Goa fan Charmaine
De Souza Fernandes from Taleigao believes that success has given the fans
belief in their squad and it is but natural that they should want to follow
their team’s journey right through to the end. She also believes that fans may
protest this ‘irregularity’ in terms of ticket sales. “I won’t be surprised if
the crowd doesn’t allow the match to take place, especially the people who
spent the night in front of the counter stand. If Goa hadn’t gotten this far,
everything would have been normal,” she says.
With the kick-off just over a day away, the scenes that are
set to unfold before the semi-final seem to be grim from a fan standpoint, and
one hopes that the focus remains on the beautiful game. A few fans share their
dismay over the ticketing issue below:
