Ronaldinho's event in Dhaka marred by mass media boycott

Sports

TBS Report
18 October, 2023, 09:10 pm
Last modified: 19 October, 2023, 07:56 am
Titled a "Magical night with Ronaldinho", organised by "Creation World & Off Track Events", the night was anything but magical and things quickly went off track. 

In what was supposed to be a grand night and event involving Brazil football legend Ronaldinho, things quickly went south as the organisers failed massively 

Titled a "Magical night with Ronaldinho", organised by "Creation World & Off Track Events", the night was anything but magical and things quickly went off track. 

Given a starting time of 7:30 PM at the Radisson Blu hotel, media personnel started to come around 6:30 PM, but they were not allowed to enter the venue.

The organisers, after plenty of back-and-forth with some members of the media, finally let them in at around 7:00 PM. 

As the media started to settle down, at around 8:15 PM, with the event yet to get underway, one of the hosts of the event made an announcement which startled the people there to cover the event.

She said that there were no seats available for media personnel and that they had to stand up and leave any seats they were seated in. 

So basically the organisers, with an invite-only event, organised an event without any proper seating for media to cover it.

Upon multiple announcements, many members of the media became disgruntled, and everyone took the joint decision to leave the premises. 

The visit by Argentina World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emi Martinez drew plenty of criticism from fans and the football fraternity as it had very little fan involvement or anything to do to help Bangladesh football.

There was also the acrimonious incident involving Bangladesh national team captain Jamal Bhuyan waiting outside the airport to meet Emi, only to get ignored by Emi's entourage. 

And now this is the second time where a popular footballer has come to Bangladesh, only for it to be mired in controversy. 

 

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