China drops plan to rename metro stations after World Cup teams

BEIJING: China has abandoned its plan to rename subway stations after the 32 teams competing in the football World Cup in Brazil amid fears that it would confuse passengers, officials said today.

To celebrate the soccer's showpiece event which kicks off on Thursday, the Beijing MTR Corporation, which runs subway Line 4 in the Chinese capital, had named 32 stops on the line and its extension after each of the 32 World Cup teams, with the other three stop being named "Fair Play", "Sportsmanship" and "Footballers of the Year".

But some passengers complained that the name change could cause confusion as the nameplates which carry the names of the participating teams were just on top of the original names of the metro stations, state-run Xinhua quoted the corporation as saying.

"In order to ensure the operational safety and passengers' convenience, and avoid any unnecessary impact on passengers' travel, names of participating teams will no longer appear in the station," the corporation said.