On Tuesday Brazilian police produced evidence to back-up the claims made following the arrest of Pat Hickey last Wednesday.
Not only that, police in Rio also produced emails showing Hickey, who temporarily stood down from all his Olympic roles following his arrest, discussing Olympic ticketing issues with Marcus Evans as long ago as 2010.
THG have been banned from handling tickets in Brazil since the 2012 Fifa World Cup. Businessman Evans is also the owner of Ipswich Town football club.
Emails between Pat Hickey and Marcus Evans showed to press in Rio police station pic.twitter.com/CGrC7g9EpG
— Sinéad O'Carroll (@SineadOCarroll) August 23, 2016
Hickey is currently sharing a cell in Bangu 10 Prison with THG director Kevin Mallon, who was arrested on August 5th in possession of OCI tickets, which should only be distributed through approved ticket reseller Pro10.
The head of the Irish and European Olympic Councils is waiting to make a court appearance, possibly later this week, after being formally charged with ticket-touting, forming a cartel and illicit marketing.
The most recent email exchange between Evans and Hickey released by the police shows the two men discussing how they both had a surplus of tickets for the Rio Opening Ceremony earlier this month.
As more details were released on the tickets found in the possession of OCI official Kevin Kilty (who along with Stephen Martin is due to be interviewed by police on Thursday) one of Ireland’s most experienced Olympians expressed her anger at the situation.
competed in 4 Games. Can only remember getting one single ticket for my event 😡😡😡
— Olive Loughnane (@OliveLoughnane) August 23, 2016
Loughnane’s experience sounds familiar to the story told this week by the mother of sailor Finn Lynch, who had to buy tickets for her son’s event through a Norwegian website.
On the latest GAA Hour we look back at Mayo-Tipperary and chat to Andy Moran about his incredible, never-ending career. Listen below or subscribe here on iTunes.
