Tickets for India's Asian Cup qualifying round match sold out in 10 minutes; AIFF issues more

The AIFF has now issued more, thanks to Sunil Chhetri, who had prayed to the state government authorities on Friday to increase the number of tickets for the Asian Cup qualifiers final round matches as the Salt Lake Stadium is known to have a capacity of 70000 people. Contrary to the All India Football Federation that has made all the tickets "complimentary", the state government had "allowed just 12,000 tickets. According to Chetri, if a stadium of almost 90,000 people is entitled to hold 10-15,000, the prospect of home advantage cancels out. He wishes for the state government to allow it, or else it would be chaotic. 

Sunil Chhetri wants people to be able to watch the game

When Chhetri's remark took the fans by storm, the state government and the AIFF held a meeting and decided to open up the stadium as long as there was demand. However, sources attending the gathering said that the West Bengal government never imposed any restrictions. The entire stadium was accessible to the public. However, the AIFF initially decided to issue 20,000 tickets to assess its popularity. Every ticket is INR five because it's complimentary; the AIFF is responsible for incurring the loss.

The AIFF claims it will continue issuing tickets till the last seat is sold.

Chhetri had previously remarked during India's 2018 Intercontinental Cup campaign in Mumbai to support the national team at the stadium. India's second and third matches will be held against Afghanistan (June 11) and Hong Kong (June 14). The tickets will be available from June 8 and 11, respectively. India had squared off at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium against Bangladesh at a World Cup qualifying round match on October 15, 2019. On Wednesday, India's upcoming match against Cambodia is slated to start at 8:30 pm after Hong Kong meets Afghanistan. 

AIFF claims that the commotion was caused due to partial availability of tickets

The AIFF will allow 50,000 tickets, as stated by Rahul Parashar of the federation's competitions department. Now, the response calculated will help the AIFF determine the numbers for the remaining match days. However, when the tickets were initially exhausted within minutes of them being available through a website on Saturday afternoon, Parashar said that it was due to the partial availability of the tickets. Meanwhile, another federation official noted that a portion of the tickets went to the government, IFA, and AIFF partners, which is why only 8,000 were left, and a part of that was made available.