FC Goa fans left seeing black

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.

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: