Pictures BS News Agency.
Bibhash Lodh, BS News Agency: Indians, especially football fans from Kolkata, spend lakhs to reach the stadium of the host country to watch the World Cup football match. And there is the opportunity to watch the match of the Indian football team against the five-time world champion Brazil at the Yuva Bharati on October 3 at home. What can be done without that? And so, when the official ticketing partner officially released the tickets for the India-Brazil match in the market at 4 pm on Wednesday, the tickets priced from 999 to 5000 rupees in the premier category were sold out in 20 minutes. The situation is such that ticket collectors have to struggle to enter the online booking app. They have to wait for a long time.
India, which is ranked 138th in the FIFA rankings, will face five-time world champion Brazil for the first time. A bigger opportunity than this has not come to Indian footballers in recent times. As far as is known, Brazil coach Carles Ancelotti is coming with a full-strength team. The team includes stars like Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo, and Andric. Neymar might have also come, if he had not retired from the national team after playing in the FIFA 2026 World Cup.
Indian and Kolkata football fans have had a long-standing relationship with Brazil, which has made waves in world football. Football emperor Pele won everyone's hearts by playing for Cosmos Club against Mohun Bagan in Kolkata at the Eden Gardens. Even after leaving the game, Pele came to Kolkata again. His popularity was still the same. However, Indians were fascinated by the game of Maradona, another magician of football, and fell in love with him. Kolkata football fans were divided into two groups, supporting Brazil and Argentina. Maradona also set foot in Kolkata twice. But after Pele and Maradona, the person for whom the people of Kolkata have been shouting the most lately is Lionel Messi. When he was at the peak of his form, Messi and the full strength Argentina team participated in an international friendly match against Venezuela at Yuva Bharati under the supervision of then coach Sabeya. After facing Panama at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on September 26, the Indian team will face the Brazilian national team at Yuva Bharati on October 3 under the coaching of Khalid Jamil. India will play against two-time world champions Uruguay on October 6 at Yuva Bharati. The Uruguay team is coached by World Cup winner Diego Forlan, who played in the ISL against ATC in the Kolkata field in the Mumbai City FC jersey. Later, he came to Kolkata again to join a football reality show.
The demand for tickets in the premier category, which cost between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000, is also skyrocketing. That is normal. Because Indian footballers buy tickets worth over one lakh to watch the World Cup matches. Compared to that, this ticket price is not very high for them. The lowest priced ticket is priced at 999 taka. Which was sold out within 20 minutes of the start of ticket booking. The remaining ticket prices for different categories are 1500, 2000, 2500, 3500, 4500, 6000, 7000, 9000 taka. The VIP ticket costs 15 thousand taka.
The Brazilian Football Confederation has said that after the FIFA 2026 World Cup, the Brazilian national team will play two matches against Australia and the Indian football team. This is part of the preparation for the 2028 Copa America and the 2030 World Cup. Brazilian national coach Carles Ancelotti wants to reorganize the team by watching the footballers in these matches.