The arrival of top European teams in Russia is a long-awaited holiday for any football fan. However, the match of the 4th round of the Champions League group stage, in which the Moscow Lokomotiv hosted the Turin Juventus, turned into a real drama for dozens of fans who wanted to personally enjoy the game by Cristiano Ronaldo and other famous football players.
Fans began to gather at the Russian Railways Arena in advance, but soon a crowd formed at the checkpoints. Its occurrence was due to the fact that part of the audience could not get into the stadium, since the validators did not read the bar codes, and the stewards tried to figure out what was the reason for the hitch.
It turned out that the fans bought passing documents from resellers. Some of them were registered at once on several names, while others were fakes at all. Their cost reached several hundred thousand rubles, and in most cases it was a question of seats in the VIP stands.
The discontent of the victims grew every minute. Many of them were sure that they had bought tickets on the Lokomotiv official website, although the club assured that this was impossible. So, one of the fans said that in total a failed trip to the match cost him 360 thousand rubles.
“The cost of my ticket is 80 thousand rubles. There are two of them. In addition, my son and I flew from Siberia, from Kemerovo. I received confirmation emails, I uploaded them. And now they tell me that they are fake, ”Sport-Express quoted him as saying.
However, there were those who immediately admitted that the tickets were obtained from unofficial sources. According to one fan, the seller asked to scan the barcode through a mobile application. After ascertaining its authenticity, she transferred the money, but found an unpleasant surprise already before entering the stadium.
“I saw my place, sector. Everything is legal. Paid, and then the seller disappeared. I came to the match, but the ticket in the scanner no longer breaks. In the parsing group, they looked and said that he was not from their base at all. What should I do? Nothing. I found an option for my money, ”the fan of Business Online quotes.
Relatives of the former goalkeeper of Lokomotiv and the Russian team Ruslan Nigmatullin, who arrived at the match from Kazan, also suffered from the actions of scammers.
“The brother wanted the children to see Ronaldo live. It turned out that his assistant bought expensive tickets on some website. Apparently not on the official one. This is not his cant, he is a major lawyer, he would not have made such a mistake. Now I'm going to watch football with them in a restaurant. They no longer have the opportunity to get into the match, ”the ex-athlete“ Championship ”quotes.
In total, about 60 people became victims of fraudsters. For most of them, the story ended relatively well. Lokomotiv employees decided to let all the victims into the stands and place them in empty seats.
According to Marat Fattakhov, commercial director of railway workers, the club was ready for such a situation, since matches with top clubs traditionally attract lovers of profit. The fact that all tickets were sold out became known on October 1, however, even on the day of the meeting, numerous websites functioned with dubious offers.
“They made a decision to start people in order to make sure everything on the second cordon at the parsing group and at the same time reduce the load on the main entrance. There were cut off roots and fake tickets. There are those who printed them on the forms of CSKA. I saw that they offered to spend money for Ronaldo, ”Fattakhov explained.
Of course, getting into the long-awaited match was unlikely to brighten up the insult from the very fact of wasted money. In this regard, the deceived fans expressed their intention to achieve the punishment of fraudsters through the courts.
“Call the investigative committee, we will write a statement about fraud, as the amount is quite large. This is a decent criminal case, ”said a fan from Kemerovo.
It is worth noting that the Lokomotiv press service called in advance to refrain from buying tickets on unofficial sites, but some fans blamed the club for what happened.
The fact that the purchase of subscriptions was difficult due to a number of factors. Firstly, their number was significantly lower than the number of people who wanted to get into the match. The team had the opportunity to take Turintsy in the more spacious Luzhniki Stadium, but it was decided to stay in the home arena.
Secondly, there were expensive packages on sale that included a pass to all three Lokomotiv home meetings in the Champions League, which did not suit those who were exclusively interested in Juventus. As a result, they turned to resellers who promised more acceptable conditions.