Tickets for India’s match against Cambodia in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers sold out within 10 minutes, with the All India Football Federation (AIFF) left facing calls to issue more tickets.
The tickets were complimentary and snapped up quickly for tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) game. Despite the demand, only 12,000 tickets were originally made available for the 85,000-capacity Salt Lake Stadium in Bidhannagar, where the game will be played.
The capacity had been cut to avoid law and order issues but Indian footballer and capital of the national team, Sunil Chhetri, called out the state government for only allowing a select number of fans at the game.
He told news outlet Inside Sport: “They (opposition teams) should feel it. If in a stadium of almost 90,000 people, if only 10-15,000, what’s the point of having a home advantage?”
In response to the calls and demand, the AIFF issued more free tickets and has agreed to issue at least 50,000 complimentary tickets for the game.
The AIFF is currently run by a Supreme Court and did not expect such demand when it made the complimentary tickets available online and offline.
India will also play Afghanistan on June 11 and Hong Kong on June 14 in the qualifiers for the 2023 Asian Cup.
Image: Emilio Garcia on Unsplash