Where there is a ball game, there will be scalpers, there will be fake tickets, scalper tickets, and the Russian World Cup is no exception. On June 17, outside the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the photographer and his party met a group of fans who were peddling and buying tickets with signs, and the worst ticket was talked about for 800 euros.
The World Cup in Russia is in full swing, what would it feel like if you came to the scene and found that the ticket you bought was fake? It may not be as simple as not being able to enter the stadium. In recent days, a number of Chinese travel agencies and fans have reported to the embassy that a Russian company ordered tickets for the 2018 World Cup, but did not receive tickets before the start of the tournament, resulting in the inability to enter the tournament.
According to media reports, Russia suffered the largest fake ticket incident in the history of the World Cup, involving more than 10,000 fake tickets, of which 3,500 flowed into China. In this regard, the Chinese Embassy in Russia said that the Russian Moscow Anzhi Company ordered tickets for the 2018 World Cup, the company claimed to have the right to sell tickets, and showed a letter signed by the officials of the Russian Organizing Committee of the World Cup. After verification with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Organizing Committee, it was found that the letter was forged.
After the incident, three domestic travel agencies made a situation statement saying that the government official of the Russian Football Association Center responsible for issuing tickets absconded with money and could not issue tickets. The number of tickets involved in the case is about 10,000, and the number of tickets involved in the case in China is 3,500, with an amount of nearly 100 million US dollars, and the Russian government has been arrested. For fans who buy tickets, the heart-wrenching question is not whether they can recover the ticket payment, but the ball game they want to see is doomed to be yellow.
On June 17, the match between the defending champions Germany and Mexico was in the spotlight, at 4 p.m. local time, two hours before the game began, and outside moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, in addition to tens of thousands of fans, there were many people holding up a variety of "need tickets!" Fans of small brands.
At the scene, there were more than 100 fans holding signs to buy tickets, distributed on subway exits and fan channels. The signs held were available in Russian and German in addition to the English version.
Are they really all fans? Through a secret interview, the photographer found that there were indeed fans who bought and exchanged tickets, and a German fan holding a sign told the photographer that he was from Germany and very much wanted to see the game, but he could not grab the ticket on the official website. Another fan even wanted to exchange two tickets for one.
But photographers soon discovered that some of these people were scalping. When you ask for tickets, he asks if you have a ticket, and when you say no, he asks you if you want a ticket. During the covert visit, one fan holding a sign was surrounded by two other fans haggling, and soon both sides left the scene. Another fan bid 800 euros, and the last two left the scene.
The photographer noticed that there were a lot of police officers in charge of security at the scene, and no one cared about so many fans who raised their cards to buy tickets, but the final deal was not here.
It is understood that in the World Cup in Russia, FIFA adopted the strategy of "fan id" in order to combat scalpers: once the payment is completed, it is necessary to register the "fan id" on the official website of FIFA, which is the completion of ticket purchase. This is the official fifa identification document given to the fans, and fans must use this fan ID and a valid ticket to enter the World Cup stadium, which is much stricter than the rambling manual ticket check in Brazil.
In addition, this id allows fans visa-free access to the Russian Federation, free use of public transport on match days, and certain free intra-federal intercity travel. After the purchase of tickets, any personal form of transfer and donation is not officially allowed, and can only be resold through the official website of FIFA.
However, whether it is a "fan id" or a "real-name system" of the World Cups in Germany and Brazil, it is impossible to achieve a real name for every ticket. It is reported that each fan in the Russian World Cup draw round can buy up to 4 tickets per game, but only one main "fan id" is displayed on the ticket. In this way, although the holders of the other 3 tickets also have to register for the "fan id", the registration name is not displayed on the ticket, and there is still room to drill.
In addition, the faces of more sponsored, media and government-given tickets also do not display "fan id". Although the Russian World Cup scalpers will be fined up to 25 times the face value of the vote, there will still be people who will take risks in the face of huge profits. The picture shows the subway exit, and the police patrol. (Jiang Yu, Wang Yu, from Moscow) B figure original works, unauthorized, strictly prohibited in any form of reproduction, infringement will be investigated!