Manipur,IMPHAL, August 24: The seats at the Khuman Lampak Main Stadium today remained virtually empty even though an international football club was playing at the stadium which is an unprecedented experience in the history of the sports loving little state of Manipur.
Wellington Phoenix of New Zealand an Australian A-league team was playing against India’s I League qualified team Sikkim United at the Khuman Lampak Main Stadium.
The absence of football lovers who never fail to turn up in droves whenever a football match is mentioned has made it quite conspicuous that they had already experienced a bad taste from the infamous Japan match which was played between a group of Japanese and a Manipuri XI, eventually won by the Manipuri team.
Inherently pointing to the Japan game, several supporters of the game today appealed to all concerned not to dupe the sports lovers of the state by organizing a so-called international match for financial gains.
“Supporters had come out in droves to watch the Japan game, and several had to even get tickets from the black, however the match turned out to a flop”, lamented another football lover at the end of today’s match.
“The football lovers wait to watch players from the state play against the international teams”, another said before adding, “please don’t play with our emotions”.
Coming back to today’s match, only a few thousands were seen at the stadium, while the stadium has a full capacity of 20000.
Tickets were sold at Rs 500 for the VIP gallery and Rs 100 for open gallery.
