Fans still wait on practice venue

Workers put in tireless efforts into installing the steel-structure tunnel at the Bangabandhu National Stadium ahead of September 6 friendly between Argentina and Nigeria. Messis and Obi Mikels will be parading down this tunnel from the dressing rooms and into the playing surface to kick off the marquee match.Photo: STAR

Many spectators who do not have the ability to buy the high-priced tickets to the Argentina-Nigeria international friendly were pinning their hopes of catching a glimpse of Lionel Messi during Argentina's open practice session. But their hopes are getting slimmer by the day as the uncertainty looms large over the venue of the practice session.
The lowest price of match tickets were fixed at Tk 7500, ruling out a large number of football loving mass in the country which has been reflected in the slow pace of ticket sales. And many of those fans turned their attention instead to watching Messi and company in open practice, but are feeling snubbed now as there is no confirmation yet from the football's governing body that is waiting for the confirmation from the Argentinean inspection team, who inspected Fatullah Cricket Stadium as practice venue and Bangabandhu National Stadium as match venue.
The Argentine inspection team was supposed to inform the BFF of their preferred practice venue one day after their departure from Bangladesh on August 22. But six days have passed since and the BFF is yet to get confirmation from Argentine team through their agent Celebrity Management Group (CMG), thus delaying the release of the practice session tickets though Apon Commu-nications, who earned the rights to Argentina's practice session and declared that the gallery and VIP tickets for the practice session would be sold at Tk 1000 and at Tk 5,000 respectively.
“I am calling our agent (Celebrity Management Group) everyday to learn about the practice venue but they are telling us that Argentina are yet to inform them,” said Anwarul Haq Helal, chairman of the Argentina-Nigeria friendly match.
“I told them that we are going to lose a lot of money as we have already cancelled the dinner on September 4 with Matra and if you can't ensure the practice venue, then we will lose another big amount,” said a frustrated Helal.
However, it has been learnt that the CMG is not confirming the practice venue as well as the schedule of the Argentina team as the last instalment payment of the nearly Tk 5 crore remains unpaid.
The football's governing body initially thought that they would pay the rest of the instalment through money raised from selling match tickets. But the sale of tickets has not been satisfactory and the unavailability of sponsor Beximco Group's vice-chairman Salman F Rahman, who is now in Mecca to perform Umra, has caused the BFF further trouble in managing the funds.
It was also learnt that the BFF was supposed to pay the last instalment by yesterday to get the approval of the practice venue but the approval has not yet reached BFF till filing of this report.
However, it was learnt from local agents Showbiz Entertainment that there was a request to keep the Fatullah Stadium ready for the practice session.
Anwarul Haq Helal however ruled out such claim even though he admitted that they are yet to pay the last instalment.
Lionel Messi is expected to reach Kolkata on Tuesday after his club Barcelona's first match against Villarreal on Monday.