Karthikaisamy

Bhaichung Bhutia, a former captain of India, expressed disappointment on Saturday, December 13, 2025, over the chaos that occurred at a stadium in Kolkata while Lionel Messi was attending an event. He said that the event's organizers should make sure that such incidents don't happen again because they hurt the country's image. Advertisement Advertisement Bhutia was talking to reporters at the airport in Raipur after returning from Jagdalpur where he attended the closing ceremony of Bastar Olympic 2025 event. The entire itinerary for Lionel Messi's tour of India When questioned about the incident that occurred at Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium, he stated, "It is a little disappointing because I heard that approximately 80,000 fans turned out." Everyone adores Messi, but his true fans were unable to see him, which is regrettable. He stated, "It also spoils the country's name," and he hoped that the organizers would take a lesson from the incident and prevent it from occurring again. Revanth Reddy scores in a friendly match, and Hyderabad roars in support of Messi. Talking to PTI Videos, Bhutia said Messi's visit was a good initiative but was marred by poor organisation which prevented genuine fans from seeing their idol. "Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan, but I think it was a very good visit. I think there was a lot of pressure on the organizers. We saw and heard that numerous unwelcome VIPs entered the stadium and surrounded Messi, preventing genuine fans from seeing him. "I sincerely hope this does not occur," he stated. "The organizers ought to ensure that genuine football fans actually have the opportunity to see their real idol and hero. Every fan is going to get very upset, because some have come from very far away. We saw that many fans came from the Northeast as well, and even from Bengal. When you pay and come to see Messi, whom people worship, and you don't get to see him because of a lot of unwanted, self-claimed VIPs surrounding him, then it becomes very difficult," he added. When asked about India's football scene, Bhutia stated that it was "not in great shape" at the moment but "hopefully will get sorted" in the future. He also praised the `Bastar Olympic' event in Chhattisgarh, terming it a good initiative to connect youth, particularly from Naxal- affected areas, with sports. "Sports is the best medium to connect with the younger generation. It was a very good initiative. I hope in the coming years we will be able to see good sportspersons emerging from Chhattisgarh, specially from Bastar," Bhutia said. Noting that he himself belongs to the tribal community, the former captain of the Indian football team said tribal communities are naturally gifted in sports. He said that the Northeast is an example because 70 to 80 percent of medal winners there are tribals. Published - December 14, 2025 06:57 am IST Related Subjects soccer / West Bengal / Kolkata

Around the start of November, I posted a poll asking the big question: are TechRadar readers iPhone or Android? After several weeks, the results are in: 62% of poll participants are part of the Android Army, while 29% are Team Apple, and 10% use both. Now, the sheer volume of choice when it comes to Android phones, including the picks of the best Android phones, would mean such phones are going to be the most popular. Equally, Apple has a vast US presence, as does TechRadar, so I’d have thought we’d probably see closer to 40% of readers being iPhone users.