The Salt Lake stadium was heaving. On a Saturday in December, that's not an unusual sight - one of Mohun Bagan, East Bengal or Mohammedan Sporting would have been playing in India's top division, the Indian Super League (ISL), watched by thousands of their fans. But this season's ISL hasn't even kicked off yet, and there's no indication if or when it will. All those fans at the Salt Lake Stadium were there to see Lionel Messi wave to them.
In that lies the great irony of Indian football.
More than 50,000 people were willing to pay anything from ₹4300 ($47) per ticket (and up to ₹50,000/$550 unofficially) for a mere glimpse of Lionel Messi walking around the Salt Lake stadium on the first leg of an event called the 'GOAT India Tour'. That's all: walk around, wave a bit, and potentially say a few words in Spanish. Stadiums have been sold out for this in three other cities - Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi - this weekend. In the latter two cities, 200 people have already booked slots (100 each) for a photo and a handshake with Messi for ₹11.74 lakh (~$13000) a person (There was also another private session arranged in Hyderabad).
Even if you take only the two official meet-and-greet sessions, that's about ₹23.4 crore (~$2.6 million) that people were willing to spend on the chance to appear in a photo with arguably the greatest footballer of all time. For context, a month back, a Request For Proposal (RFP) floated by the All India Football Federation for the running of the ISL -- which stipulated an annual payment of ₹37.5 crore (~$4.1 million) to the Federation -- went unanswered.
This is not to say that those who paid money to meet Messi were wrong in doing so -- their money, their dreams. Nor, indeed, to say that the revenue share demanded by the AIFF is fair. The fact remains, though, that there is money in the ecosystem, money that people are willing to spend on football. Just not on nuts-and-bolts, domestic football.
For instance, and on a much larger scale, The Week magazine estimates that the Messi event rang in anywhere between ₹120-180 crores ($13.2 million - $19.8 million) in sponsorships. For a three-day event that involves no sporting action at all. Being in the same vicinity as Brand Messi made it worth it for corporate sponsors across India, but the country's domestic scene doesn't seem to have any takers. It's estimated that a club in the ISL spends ~₹60 crores ($6.6 million) a season, and posts losses of ~₹25 crores ($2.75 million). Even with the highest minimum-price ticket for an ISL match pegged at ₹300 ($3.3), and generally hovering around ₹100 ($1.1), attendances are dwindling. There's a reason no one is interested in running the league in its current form, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.
Instead, we had amounts that could have bankrolled two or three first division clubs spent on a three-day circus of PR and Paparazzi flash that is still somehow, absurdly, seen as some form of sporting event. It boggles the mind how that was done in the first place, for not only is there no real football connection to this 'GOAT India Tour', there's also absolutely no benefit to the sport.
Now, the fact that the organization was so chaotic that Messi was whisked away from the Salt Lake inside fifteen minutes after being pressured for selfies, autographs (and time) from politicians and VIPs with on-pitch access is a neat encapsulation of the utter nonsensical state of football - perhaps all high-profile sport - in India.
Remember the tragedy of the Chinnaswamy? Eleven people lost their lives on June 4 as thousands tried to get into the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru, to catch a sight of Virat Kohli and his Indian Premier League-winning RCB team in a trophy parade that was criminally disorganized. Much like this Messi event, there was no sport involved in it all, no match, just a multitude going wild to merely see their idols in the flesh.
It didn't turn tragic in Kolkata, but when the Salt Lake crowd reacted as Salt Lake crowds are wont to react when they feel frustrated and cheated and angry -- running on to the pitch, ripping up the seats and hurling them onto the track along with bottles and other objects -- it attracted global attention, partly because anything Messi does (or doesn't do) is newsworthy worldwide, but also (and sadly) because no one really associates India with the kind of football-mania that was on display in Kolkata.
Sure, the city boasts one of the world's oldest footballing cultures (Bagan were founded in 1889), but why would anyone connect India and football when the country is ranked 142 in the FIFA men's rankings and 67 in the women's? Why would they do it when, if anyone turned and looked, they'd see that the 2025/26 league season (first, second or third division) hasn't even kicked off in mid-December?
That's the point that seems to be getting lost in all this. Messi will come, Messi will wave, Messi will smile. The politicians and the celebrities and the uber-rich will get their selfies. The fans may or may not get a glimpse of the man they so greatly adore. The world's media will focus their attention on India and its behaviour in the face of sporting royalty and wonder at the extremes of it all. And then, once Messi departs, everyone else too will move on.
Everyone except Indian football, which will be left with these age-old questions for which there are no answers.
When will the ISL start? Will the ISL start? What about the I-League? I-League 2? Indian Women's League? How are the footballers of this country doing? What are they doing?
Who cares - at least we have a 70-foot Messi statue that caused a riot when the great man was here.