Bengaluru traffic became a point of contention after Panama’s football team reportedly spent more than two hours travelling to Sree Kanteerava Stadium for its friendly match against India on Friday, although a senior traffic police officer disputed the duration of the journey. The match ended in a 1–1 draw.
Panama head coach Thomas Christiansen raised concerns about the team’s travel arrangements during the post-match press conference. He said the players’ time on the bus had affected their preparations and described the logistics surrounding the visit as complicated.
“I don’t want this to sound like an excuse, but it is not easy to be in a bus for two hours in traffic to get to the stadium,” Christiansen said. “The logistics and the travel here were also complicated. We have to be smarter when we sign these agreements again.”
Christiansen added that the arrangements needed greater attention in future. “I don’t want this to sound like an excuse, but we have to be careful with how we handle things inside and outside the pitch because our players deserve better,” he said.
The match was scheduled for 7.30 pm. Panama’s team stayed at the Renaissance Bengaluru Race Course Hotel, which is about 3.8 km from the stadium. The short distance between the hotel and venue brought the city’s traffic conditions into focus, particularly for a visiting team operating on a fixed match-day schedule.
However, a senior traffic police officer who spoke to The Indian Express denied that the bus journey took two hours. The officer said there had been VIP movement involving Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, but maintained that the team reached the location according to its schedule.
“I was there at the place and there was a VIP movement including the chief minister. There was no such delay. The team reached the spot as per their schedule,” the officer said. The officer acknowledged that Bengaluru has a traffic problem but said the specific stretch used by the team generally has moving traffic. The journey, the officer added, might have felt longer to the Panama delegation even though it did not take two hours.
The match was attended by Shivakumar and Bangalore Development Authority chairman N A Haris, who is also vice-president of the South Asian Football Federation. The presence of VIP movement has added another logistical factor to the differing accounts of the team’s travel.
The episode places attention on the operational demands of hosting international sporting events in dense cities. Teams, organisers, police and government officials must coordinate travel routes, security arrangements and scheduled movements around venues that may be only a few kilometres from hotels but can still face unpredictable travel conditions.
For now, the two accounts remain different: the Panama coach described a two-hour bus journey and criticised the arrangements, while the traffic police officer said there was no such delay and that the team arrived as scheduled.
