Former footballers and coaches duped by travel agents

Kolkata, June 30 (UNI) A group of former footballers, coaches and club officials, who went to Germany to watch the football World Cup, found themselves in trouble after being allegedly duped by a local tour operator who arranged their visit.

The 30-member group that included celebrated football coach Amal Dutta, Mohun Bagan General Secretary and club treasurer Debasish Dutta, former Indian Football Association secretary Ranjit Gupta and ex-woman football international Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar, were crestfallen on their arrival to Frankfurt that they neither had any hotel bookings nor tickets for the matches.

Dutta had paid Rs 36,000 in advance to the travel agent, while some others had shelled out Rs 1.5 lakh or even more.

'' Most of them are now staying with great difficulty in a couple of rooms which they have rented with money from their own pockets.

Only my father-in-law has got two tickets for the quarter-finals, '' Amal Dutta's daughter-in-law Dolly told reporters here today.

She said the group was literally stranded on the streets and had to go without food for almost the entire day as no arrangements had been made for them.

Meanwhile, another group, led by former Mohun Bagan assistant general secretary Balaram Chowdhury, who was supposed to leave for Germany tomorrow, had filed an FIR against the travel agent after they learnt about the condition of the first group.

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