Police said in a statement they had discovered evidence linking Hickey to an worldwide scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price.
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Police in Rio de Janeiro served Patrick Joseph Hickey, the president of Ireland’s Olympic Committee, with arrest and search warrants Wednesday morning, in an embarrassing development in a scandal over accusations that he was involved in the scalping of some 1,000 tickets to Summer Olympics events.
Adams said the Olympic committee, too, was “still in the process of establishing the facts”, declining to speculate on Hickey’s situation even after charges had been pressed.
Coincidentally, Match’s loss-making operations at the 2010 World Cup received a boost when THG staff were arrested for ticket selling in South Africa, using laws that Federation Internationale de Football Association supported being introduced for the tournament.
“In view of his previous cardiac history he will remain in hospital for a further 24 hours”, the Irish committee said in a statement Wednesday night. Police, however, found Hickey’s Olympic accreditation badge on the floor, along with his shoes, socks and bag.
He remains in hospital under police custody.
The police said they had discovered evidence linking 71-year-old Irishman Pat Hickey to an worldwide scheme to illegally pass Olympic tickets to touts who were reselling them at well above their original price. He joined the ruling executive board four years ago.
“We don’t know what the allegations or charges are yet”, he said. “We have full confidence in the system”.
Police said the arrest was related to that of fellow Irishman Kevin James Mallon on the day of the Olympic opening ceremony.
Hickey, 71, was taken to a hospital shortly after 7 a.m. this morning because he complained of not feeling well shortly after being confronted by police, Mark Adams, the IOC’s director of communications, said.
“Today’s arrest shows that the law must be followed”, top police investigator Ricardo Barbosa said after a news conference. “We found out that the Irish Olympic Committee ended up facilitating the ticket scalping scheme”.
An Irish executive was arrested last week in the same investigation. Mallon was arrested along with a local employee who was working as an interpreter.
Police have said that they have also seized more than 1,000 tickets, which were allocated to the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) over the course of their investigation.
One of the executives wanted is Marcus Evans, who owns Marcus Evans Group, the parent company for THG Sports and the owner of English soccer club Ipswich Town. Some of the tickets had the Olympic Council of Ireland name on them.
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Two people were arrested earlier this month amid allegations that tickets allocated to the OCI were being sold on the black market in Rio.
