世界杯曝门票骗局，中国球迷损失惨重
香港——自从在中国南方大城市广州上初中的时候起，薛丘联(音)就一直是阿根廷国家足球队的铁杆球迷。但是，在现场观看该球队比赛的梦想以前总是遥不可及。今年，他终于有足够的钱去俄罗斯观看世界杯比赛了。
In March, when Mr. Xue, 30, tried to purchase a ticket to Argentina’s World Cup match last week against Iceland, he found that official ticket agents were all sold out. Desperate to see the match, he bought a ticket through a Beijing agency, which he had found by way of an Argentina fans’ group on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform.
今年3月，当30岁的薛先生试图购买上周的阿根廷和冰岛的世界杯小组赛门票时，他发现官方的门票代理商都已售罄。因为他急着要看比赛，于是通过一家北京的代理买了一张门票，那家代理是他在中国社交媒体平台微信上的阿根廷球迷群里找到的。
The catch? He paid $620, roughly four times the face value. “Just let me get to Russia to see Messi,” he recalled thinking when he made the purchase, referring to Argentina’s star striker, Lionel Messi.
这里面有什么名堂吗?他花了620美元(约合3900元人民币)，大约是票面价格的四倍。“只要让我去俄罗斯看看梅西，”他回忆起买票时是这样想的，他指的是阿根廷球星利昂内尔·梅西(Lionel Messi)。
But Mr. Xue turned out to be one of possibly thousands of Chinese fans whose World Cup tickets never materialized. The Chinese government now says they were victims of a ticketing swindle orchestrated by a Moscow company called Anzhi, which shares a name with a Russian Premier League football club in the southern region of Dagestan.
但后来发现，可能有多达数千名中国球迷从未拿到他们买的世界杯门票，薛先生就是其中之一。中国政府现在表示，这些人是莫斯科安郅公司策划的一场门票骗局的受害者。该公司与达吉斯坦南部的俄罗斯超级联赛(Russian Premier League)足球俱乐部同名。
The Chinese Embassy in Moscow said in a notice last week that it had confirmed the fraud with Russia’s Foreign Ministry and the local organizing committee for the World Cup. This week, one person was arrested in connection with the case.
中国驻莫斯科大使馆上周在一份通知中说，已经向俄罗斯外交部和当地世界杯组委会核实，这是一场骗局。本周，一名涉案人员已被逮捕。
The embassy did not say how many fans had been swindled. But according to a report on Friday by The Cover, a Chinese news site, three travel agencies in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing wrote to their local tourism office saying that Anzhi, the Moscow company, also known as Anzhi Msk, told them it had sold about 10,000 tickets, 3,500 of them to Chinese fans.
使馆没有透露有多少球迷被骗。但据中文新闻网站“封面新闻”报道，中国西南部城市重庆的三家旅行社写信给当地旅游局说，莫斯科的安郅公司(Anji Msk)告诉旅行社，公司已卖出1万张门票，其中有3500张卖给了中国球迷。
Anzhi Msk told the Chongqing agencies, which had collectively purchased nearly half a million dollars’ worth of tickets from it, that it had intended to distribute the tickets, but that the Russian officials who had promised to provide them absconded with the ticket money, The Cover reported.
据封面新闻(The Cover)报道，这三家重庆旅行社合计销售了约286万元人民币的门票，安郅公司告诉旅行社，公司原打算把票分给它们，但承诺提供门票的俄罗斯官员携款潜逃，无法出票。
Mr. Xue, the Argentina fan, said he bought his $620 ticket from an agency in Beijing called the Russian Chinese Culture Education Development Center. He gave The New York Times a copy of a power-of-attorney agreement he said the agency had sent him, concerning Anzhi Msk’s relations with World Cup ticket buyers in China. The agreement lists Anzhi Msk’s chairwoman as Zhanna E. Bryutova.
阿根廷球迷薛先生说，他是从北京一家名为俄罗斯中国文化教育发展中心(Russian Chinese Culture Education Development Center)的机构那里花620美元买的门票。他向《纽约时报》提供了一份他说是安郅发给他的授权委托书的副本，涉及安郅与中国的世界杯购票者的关系。委托书上的公司法人是珍妮·E·布柳多娃(Zhanna E. Bryutova)。
Ms. Bryutova is also a co-founder of another Russian company, Obltransstroyresurs. Its other co-founder is Eldar A. Isaev, a former executive director of the Anzhi Football Club.
布柳多娃也是另一家俄罗斯公司Obltransstroy的联合创始人之一。该公司的另一位联合创始人是埃尔达尔·A·伊萨耶夫(Eldar A. Isaev)，他曾是安郅足球俱乐部的执行董事。
Last July, Mr. Isaev told Sport Connect, a Russian sports news outlet, that the club planned to engage in a joint venture with Chinese partners, and that it already had someone “mingling in local soccer circles” in China.
去年7月，伊萨耶夫对俄罗斯体育新闻机构Sport Connect说，该俱乐部打算与中国合作伙伴成立一家合资企业，而且已经有人“混入了(中国)当地的足球界”。
In The Cover’s story last week, a travel agent in the western Chinese province of Sichuan named Yang Jun was quoted as saying that someone claiming to be a former member of the Anzhi Football Club had once reached out to him, hinting at a possible collaboration and saying that he had extensive contacts within FIFA, soccer’s governing body.
封面新闻在上周的报道中引用中国西部四川省的一位名叫杨军的旅行社代理人的话说，一个自称是安郅足球俱乐部退役球员的人曾找过他，该人暗示可以合作，并称与足球管理机构国际足联(FIFA)有很多联系。
On Wednesday, the Interfax news agency reported that Mr. Isaev had been arrested on suspicion of large-scale fraud. The Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday that the arrest was linked to World Cup ticketing fraud.
周三，国际文传电讯社(Interfax)报道称，伊萨耶夫因涉嫌大规模诈骗已被逮捕。《生意人报》(Kommersant)周四报道称，他被逮捕与世界杯门票诈骗有关。
Kommersant said that Mr. Isaev, who it said became a top manager at Anzhi Msk in October after quitting the Anzhi Football Club, was suspected of causing an estimated $1.1 million in losses for Chinese fans. It said Mr. Isaev had pleaded not guilty to the charges, saying he had been set up by his business partners.
《生意人报》说，伊萨耶夫在退出安郅足球俱乐部后，去年10月成为安郅公司的一名高级经理，他涉嫌给中国球迷造成了约110万美元(约合700万元人民币)的损失。该报说，伊萨耶夫对这些指控不承认有罪，称自己被他的商业伙伴骗了。
Ms. Bryutova, Mr. Isaev’s business partner, was also detained, Kommersant said.
《生意人报》说，伊萨耶夫的商业伙伴布柳多娃也已被拘留。
In a statement on Thursday, Anzhi Football Club said that while Mr. Isaev was its executive director from January to October of 2017, his activity since then has had “no connection” to the club.
安郅足球俱乐部周四在一份声明中表示，虽然伊萨耶夫从2017年1月到10月曾担任俱乐部的执行董事，但他后来的活动与俱乐部“没有任何关系”。
Until 2016, the owner of the Anzhi Football Club was Suleyman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch and lawmaker who made billions in oil, mining and finance. He was arrested last year in the French Riviera, over the Kremlin’s objections, in connection with a tax fraud and money laundering investigation.
直到2016年，安郅足球俱乐部的拥有者一直是苏莱曼·克里莫夫(Suleyman Kerimov)，他是俄罗斯寡头、议员，在石油、矿业和金融领域赚了数十亿美元。尽管遭到克里姆林宫的反对，但他已于去年在法国里维埃拉被逮捕，因为他与一个税务欺诈和洗钱调查有关系。
Multiple attempts to reach Anzhi Msk and the Russian Embassy in Beijing were unsuccessful. The Chongqing Morning Post reported on Sunday that its reporters had visited Anzhi Msk’s office in Moscow and found it empty.
记者多次试图联系安郅公司和俄罗斯驻北京大使馆，均未成功。《重庆晨报》周日报道称，该报记者去了位于莫斯科的安郅公司办公室，发现那里一时人去楼空。
The Russian Chinese Culture Education Development Center, the Beijing ticketing agency, declined to comment, and several travel agents in Chongqing referred questions to their local tourism office.
北京的那家门票代理、俄罗斯中国文化教育发展中心拒绝对此事置评。重庆的那几家旅行社让记者把问题提交给当地的旅游部门。
An officer there said that five travel agencies and about 100 fans in Chongqing had been cheated out of tickets by Anzhi Msk. The officer, who only gave his surname, Guo, said on Wednesday that some of the agencies had purchased new tickets for their clients.
当地旅游局的一名官员说，重庆市有五家旅行社和约100名球迷被安郅公司欺骗，买了假票。这名只说自己姓郭的官员周三表示，一些旅行社已经为客户买到了新门票。
FIFA said in early June that more than 2.4 million World Cup tickets had been allocated to fans around the world, and that fans in China had bought 40,251 of them, making their country ninth in ticket sales.
国际足联曾在6月初表示，已经将240多万张世界杯门票分配给世界各地的球迷们，中国球迷总共购买了40251张门票，在全球门票购买上名列第九。
People’s Daily, a Chinese newspaper, warned in January that it was “highly possible” that anyone buying World Cup tickets from Chinese travel agencies would end up either with counterfeits or with no tickets at all.
今年1月，中国报纸《人民日报》曾警告说，从中国旅行社购买世界杯门票的人“很有可能”最终买到的是假票，或干脆拿不到票。
But Mr. Xue, the Argentina fan from Guangzhou, said he dealt with an agency because he was desperate to see his favorite team in a tournament that he describes as “sacred.”
但来自广州的阿根廷球迷薛先生说，他通过一家代理商买票，是因为他非常想看到一场他称之为“神圣”的赛事中看到自己最喜欢的球队比赛。
In April, he said, he was relieved to receive a message from the Beijing ticketing agency with details of his purchase. But May came and went without any sign of the ticket itself.
他说，今年4月，当他收到北京那家票务代理机构发来的有关购票细节的信息时，他松了一口气。但5月一个月过去了，仍没有任何票本身的迹象。
Days before the Argentina-Iceland match in Moscow, he received a letter in which the Beijing ticketing agency said it had “lost contact with the ticket holder” and would be unable to “deliver the physical ticket to the customer as originally planned,” according to a copy of the letter.
在阿根廷与冰岛在莫斯科举行比赛的几天前，他收到了来自北京那家门票代理的一封信件，据该信的一份副本，信中说，由于“已与购票者失去联系”，无法“按照原先的安排向购票者交付实际的门票”。
“I realized I had been cheated,” Mr. Xue said.
“我意识到自己被骗了，”薛先生说。
One of his friends later bought him a ticket, paying more than $1,500. Mr. Xue said he boarded a flight to Moscow last week wondering if that ticket, whose face value was $165, would prove to be fake.
他的一个朋友后来花了1500多美元帮他买了一张票。薛先生说，他上周登上飞往莫斯科的航班，但一直担心这张票面售价为165美元的门票是否会被证明也是假的。
Fortunately, it wasn’t, and on Saturday Mr. Xue was able to watch Argentina play Iceland to a draw. He said the experience was satisfying, even if he was disappointed with Lionel Messi’s performance.
幸运的是，那张票不是假的。周六，薛先生得以观看阿根廷和冰岛踢成平局。他说，尽管他对梅西的表现感到失望，但看球的经历令他满意。
In an interview on Wednesday, hours before he flew back to Guangzhou, Mr. Xue said that his Beijing ticketing agency had offered to repay the cost of his $620 ticket, plus an additional 15 percent for his troubles. But he said he had demanded $3,100 — a sum that included the cost of both his tickets, plus what he called emotional damages.
周三，在返回广州的几小时前，薛先生在接受采访时说，北京那家票务代理已经提出要把他花的620美元票钱退给他，而且要为他遇到的麻烦多支付票价的15%。但他说，他已经提出了3100美元的赔偿要求——包括两张门票的票价，外加他称之为精神损害的赔偿。
“I’ve been so nervous,” he said.
“我一直很紧张啊，”他说。
