A former director of Russian football club Anzhi Makhachkala has been arrested for selling counterfeit World Cup tickets to Chinese fans according to a report by L'Equipe.
A spokeswoman for Moscow’s Tverskoi district court, Anastasia Dzyurko, confirmed to AFP that Eldar Isayev was detained yesterday until August 18 on a charge of large-scale embezzlement, which is punishable by a 10 year jail sentence.
Eldar Issayev reportedly sold counterfeit World Cup tickets to Chinese supporters for an estimated €860,000. Russian state-owned news outlet Global Times reported more than 3,500 fake tickets were sold to Chinese fans, with 30 fans from Chongqing Municipality in southwestern China barred from attending Saturday’s Argentina-Iceland game, according to the Chongqing Morning Post.
The Chinese Embassy in Moscow put out a statement last week saying that a company by the name of Anzhi Msk had contacted travel agencies in China saying it was offering official match tickets and presented a forged letter from Russia's World Cup organising committee.
Anzhi Msk was registered in Moscow in 2017, with its president named as Zhanna Bryutova. Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Bryutova is Isayev's girlfriend and has been detained for questioning.
Anzhi have today released a statement in response to the arrest saying that Isayev had worked for the club as executive director for 10 months in 2017 but was sacked last October.
