A FIFA member is the source of thousands of illegal ticket sales at the World Cup finals, a Brazilian police chief said on Thursday.
Channel News Asia, AFP, 4 July 2014
Channel News Asia, AFP, 4 July 2014
FIFA World
Cup Brazil 2014 self-service ticketing machines, taken on
April 18, 2014 in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)
|
RIO DE JANEIRO: A FIFA member is the source of thousands of illegal ticket sales at the World Cup finals, a Brazilian police chief said on Thursday.
Police
commissioner Fabio Barucke said "someone from FIFA" and "an
intermediary from Match Hospitality", FIFA's ticket agency, channelled the
millions of dollars worth of tickets onto the black market.
The FIFA
official, who was not identified, is believed to be staying at the Copacabana
Palace hotel, Barucke told reporters. The Copacabana Palace is one of the
luxury Rio de Janeiro hotels being used by the FIFA hierarchy.
Police made
11 arrests Tuesday of people accused of selling tickets that may have been
obtained through a contact at world football's governing body.
A police
investigation, dubbed "Operation Jules Rimet" after the former French
FIFA president, was launched without FIFA's knowledge, the police chief said.
However,
following the arrests "we are now calling for FIFA's assistance to help us
identify this FIFA person, a foreigner staying in the Copacabana Palace
hotel," Barucke said.
Initially,
police thought that Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, a Franco-Algerian national based
in Dubai, was the source of the trafficking, Barucke said.
"But
after his arrest we realised there was someone above him from FIFA with an
intermediary at Match Hospitality," he added.
"We
want to identify the last link in the chain, from the ticket touts at the
stadiums, right through to those who are above Lamine Fofona and who passed the
tickets on to him," said Barucke.
He added:
"We have indications that at least one person from FIFA passed on
tickets" to Match Hospitality.
Brazilian
authorities said on Wednesday they suspected members of the Brazilian, Argentine
and Spanish football federations were involved in illegally selling tickets
normally reserved for sponsors, football federations, players and
non-government organisations.
Marcos Kac,
the Rio de Janeiro investigating magistrate in charge of the inquiry said
Wednesday that at least 1,000 tickets per game were involved with a basic price
of 1,000 euros (US$1,365).
FIFA
spokeswoman Delia Fischer said Thursday the world body was waiting to get more
information on the Brazilian investigation before commenting.
On
Wednesday, FIFA's marketing director Thierry Weil called illegal ticket sales
"a scourge" and said in a statement that the world body and its
experts "have consistently been providing information to Brazilian
authorities to assist them in their enforcement of existing legislation and to
prosecute those violating the law.
"The
fact that Brazil has a long-standing law against ticket scalping has been
helpful," he added.
"FIFA
is waiting on detailed information from the local authorities in order to be
able to validate the tickets seized, identify their origins and take
appropriate action together with the local authorities," Weil said.
The brother
and agent of former football star Ronaldinho, Roberto de Assis Moreira, faces
questioning in the case, but is not under investigation, Kac said.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.