June 25 – Chinese fans snapped up over more than 40,000 tickets for the World Cup in Russia via FIFA’s ticketing platform, but not all has been neighbourly love in Russia as a number have fallen victims Chinese of a counterfeit black-market ticket scam.
Russian company Anji MSK is understood to have defrauded about 3,000 Chinese fans, confirmed the Russian Embassy in China. Around 10,000 counterfeit tickets have been sold, according to local media reports. Anji MSK claimed to own tickets sales rights and even managed to provide a letter of authorisation from FIFA, China National Radio reported.
Following hundreds of complaints from Chinese fans, the Russian Embassy in China launched an inquiry with the foreign ministry in Moscow. The embassy was told the alleged authorisation letter was illegitimate.
China didn’t make it to the World Cup. They last qualified for the finals in 2002, but crashed out in the first round, losing all three games in a group with Brazil, Costa Rica and Turkey. Still, demand from China has been unprecedented with most tickets being sold via FIFA’s official website.
The Russian Embassy in China has issued a notice warning Chinese football fans about the scam.
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