THREE Chinese fans, who came to Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, mixed up two Russian cities with similar names — Volgograd and Vologda — when buying train tickets, Russian Transport Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh said Thursday.

“A football fan from China couldn’t find his train in the timetable in Volgograd on June 19. It was 01:37 a.m. local time and his train was to leave according to the schedule. At first [we] also tried to find the train in the timetable, but then we looked at the ticket closely and it turned out that he [the fan] was supposed to leave from Vologda but he was in Volgograd,” Ditrikh told journalists.

He added that two more fans from China faced the same problem mixing up Vologda and Volgograd while buying train tickets. Vologda is situated around 250 miles (402 kilometers) north of Moscow while Volgograd, which will host four World Cup matches, is located more than 560 miles south of the Russian capital.

(SD-Agencies)

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.