If it is a foreign holiday this season, it must be for sports. From Euro to the Olympics, many Calcuttans are flying out to Europe this month.
The UEFA European Football Championship or Euro 2024 will be held in Germany between June 14 and July 14. The Olympics will be held in Paris between July 26 and August 11.
If it is football, Calcuttans will be in the stands, like it was in the FIFA World Cup, 2022, in Qatar.
Several football fans from the city who had seen the World Cup matches from the stands are going to Germany for a first-hand taste of the Euro action.
Two such fans are Kumar Mitra, 69, and wife Dolly, 64. Kumar, an entrepreneur, will be leaving for Germany on June 28 and return on July 11.
Prasenjit Sen and wife Sampa in Argentina vs Netherlands World Cup match in Qatar 2022.
The couple will be watching nine matches of Euro — quarter-finals, two semi-finals, the match for the third spot and the final.
“My father is crazy about football. He is an East Bengal fan and would go to the Maidan to watch matches,” said son Kaustubh.
In Qatar, they watched the final between Argentina and France, apart from the two semi-finals and the third-place match. Kaustubh was with them.
“My father is a Argentina fan and we enjoyed the World Cup," Kaustubh said.
Businessman Prasenjit Sen and wife Sampa will watch the July 9 semi-final in Munich. The couple were in Qatar, too, and watched two quarter-finals and both semi-final matches.
“We are trying to get tickets for the final, too,” said Sen.
The tickets are costlier for Euro compared to the Qatar World Cup, said Sen. “In Qatar, we got tickets for Rs 80,000 to Rs 90,000. For Euro, each ticket costs around Rs 1.6 lakh,” he said.
Sen wants France and Portugal to face off in the semi-final match that he and his wife will watch. “We are rooting for the two countries because of Mbappe and Ronaldo. In the FIFA World Cup, we watched Messi, Ronaldo and Mbappe,” he said. “This time, if we are lucky, we will see Mbappe and Ronaldo in action.”
Insurance sector employee Sarbottom Chatterjee is leaving for Germany on June 14. He will watch the group matches — Austria versus France, England versus Serbia and Portugal versus Czech Republic.
“I want to see the first matches so that I can watch all the top players of the those teams,” said Chatterjee.
In Qatar, too, he had watched the first matches — Argentina versus Saudi Arabia, France versus Australia and Spain versus Costa Rica.
Football fan Supriyo Sarkar will be flying to Paris on July 22 to watch the Brazil-Spain match in the Olympics. “This is my first international event and I am very excited,” said Sarkar.
Tour operators said the demand for Euro tickets is high among Calcuttans.
“The demand was, of course, higher for Qatar World Cup tickets because those were cheaper and the venue was nearer home. But the demand for Euro, too, is surprisingly high,” said an official of Hermes Voyages Pvt Ltd, a travel agency that is organising tickets and tours for several fans.