Thaindian News

Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS) The most high profile soccer match on Indian soil Friday was marred by organisational glitches and power failure that left the organisers red faced.

The media persons were a harassed lot. Some of them were accommodated in the overflow area. However, they were refused permission by police, and could get there only after much heated exchanges.

Kolkata’s infamous tryst with power failure during key games returned to haunt the city as there was a power outage of two minutes during Venezuelan coach Cesar Farias’ press conference at the Salt Lake stadium.

However, Argentine coach Alejandro Sabella who held his meet after Farias, stood by the organisers, saying such things happen.

The media meet too turned out to be a chaotic affair as there were more security personnel than journalists.

Pandemonium ensued after the moderator going out of the way invited singer Babul Supriyo to ask a question to Sabella. The media persons initially protested as he was not a journalist but later relented.

Earlier, chaos and mismanagement reigned supreme at the stadium gates with people remaining stranded in lengthy queues as security personnel took an inordinately long time frisking and searching them.

The queues, as long as two km, remained stationery for over 30 minutes just before the beginning of the match. The delay was mostly because of the elaborate security measures put up at the stadium.

Spectators had to jostle and push each other in their endeavour to get in.

In another instance of organisational inefficiency, the media persons had to wait for over 35 minutes into the first half of the match to get the Argentina team list.