"There's one careless Italian who booked 56 tickets in our trains. When he did not use five of the tickets, we canceled his bookings, and then he contacted the call center asking to keep two bookings. So, he was only going to use two tickets — a ticket to Saransk and a return ticket," Polyakov said.
He added that the football fan had apologized but if he had not been "caught him in the act," he would have continued "the same way."
READ MORE: Over 86% of Free Train Tickets to FIFA Group-Stage Games Booked — Official
13 March 2018, 06:29 GMT
A total of 734 additional trains with 448,000 available seats have been scheduled for the World Cup fans and accredited journalists. According to the Transport Directorate, more than 90 percent of the seats in the free trains have already been booked, and about 360 bookings have been canceled since the beginning of the tournament.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup kicked off on June 14 and will continue until July 15, with the matches being played in 11 cities across Russia.
