When Lionel Messi sets foot at the Salt Lake Stadium here to play an international friendly, he’ll be thousands of miles away from the Estadio Monumental, the national football stadium in Buenos Aires. Messi will realise that playing at this unusual neutral venue is a reality international players are increasingly getting used to as national football associations are selling rights to host friendlies involving their respective sides.
In this case, Celebrity Management Group (CMG), the Kolkata-based sports management company, has bought rights for two games — Argentina vs Venezuela on September 3 and Argentina vs Nigeria, September 6 at Dhaka — for Rs 46cr. For the game at Kolkata, CMG paid Rs 22 crore.
The trend of selling hosting rights was also seen when Russia played Iran on February 9 in Abu Dhabi. A few days later, Argentina took on Brazil in Doha. All were international friendlies approved by FIFA.
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