Shane Ross, a sports minister who is now in Rio and had met with Hickey during the weekend, expressed his shock over the official’s arrest with a simple tweet.
Advertisement
The AP reports that officials seized over 1,000 tickets that had been sold for high fees and distributed among members of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
Brazilian police afforded Patrick Hickey no such deference early Wednesday, bringing a TV crew to film the International Olympic Committee executive being arrested in a Rio de Janeiro hotel room while naked.
Citing the arrest warrant executed against its president his morning, the Olympic Council of Ireland says Hickey “has taken the decision to step aside temporarily as President of the OCI and all other Olympic functions. until this matter is fully resolved”.
It was also announced that WIlliam O’Brien would assume the role of president of the Olympic Council of Ireland.
During the World Cup, police arrested high-level figures of the official Cup corporate hospitality provider for funneling tickets to touters.
“Continuing our investigation, civil police discovered the involvement of Patrick (Hickey) in the global scheme of ticket scalping”, the Rio police fraud unit said. Prosecutors have estimated the profits from the black market sales at US$3 million dollars.
A spokesman for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the BBC: “We are aware of an Irish citizen having been arrested in Rio”. According to a report by Irish TV and radio broadcasting outlet RTE, Hickey now faces three charges and, if convicted, could end up spending up to seven years behind bars.
Mr Hickey will be replaced as president of the European Olympic Committees by his deputy Janez Kocijancic.
THG and PRO10 have denied any wrongdoing over ticket sales.
At least a half dozen police officers went to the luxury hotel in the upscale Barra da Tijuca neighborhood in the early morning hours to arrest the 71-year-old Hickey, who fell ill and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. When we know some facts, when police give us some facts, we’ll let you know.
Police said the three PRO10 executives did not travel to the country for the Games and were considered “fugitives”. Rio police said Brazilian federal police and Interpol have been notified.
After the first arrests last week, the Olympic Council of Ireland said it would investigate why some of its tickets were in the possession of the suspects.
On Monday Brazilian authorities issued arrest warrants for four people connected to THG, including Marcus Evans, the British multi-millionaire who owns THG Sports’ parent company and Ipswich Town Football Club.
Mr Hickey, who had committed to retiring before Rio but stayed on, took a low-profile approach to the ticketing scandal from the outset.
Brazilian police are to hold a press conference on Hickey’s arrest at 1.30pm Irish time, according to media reports. In 2015, Hickey led the first European Games organised by the EOC in Baku Azerbaijan.
“The allegation that a portion of the OCI’s family and friends tickets were being made available by PRO10 for general sale is utterly untrue and completely without any foundation”, the company said.
Advertisement
THG does not have a permit to sell Irish Olympic tickets but an official company, Pro 10, said Mallon was working for them and did have a letter of accreditation.
