IOC President Heads to Croatia, UN General Assembly

(ATR) Thomas Bach heads to Croatia Friday to take part in the NOC’s 25th anniversary celebrations amid demands by Rio police to interview him about the Olympic ticketing scandal.

The IOC confirmed Bach will go to Zagreb for Saturday’s events. With European Olympic Committees president Pat Hickey charged in the ticketing scam, Janez Kocijancic will make his first major appearance as acting EOC president at Croatia’s celebrations.

EOC secretary general Raffaele Pagnozzi is also attending. Croatian Olympic Committee president Zlatko Matesa and secretary general Josip Čop will lead the celebrations together with government ministers. The Croatian Olympic Committee was founded on Sept.10, 1991.

Rio investigators probing the scandal that has engulfed Hickey and the Olympic Council of Ireland said last night they would like to speak to the IOC president to clear up his involvement in the affair.

Bach’s no-show at the Paralympic opening ceremony to attend the state funeral of a former West Germany president and reluctance to visit Brazil to see any of the Paralympics due to "long-standing engagements" has raised questions about his links to the late allocation of 296 tickets to Olympic Council of Ireland for Rio Olympic events. "We need to know if Bach has influenced the ticketing program of the [OCI] and the Authorized Ticket Reseller," Rio police investigator Aloysio Falcao told Around the Rings on Thursday.

The IOC insisted Friday that Bach has a "packed" schedule through the duration of the Paralympics, which conclude on Sept. 18.

Among Bach's business trips are a visit to the UN Assembly in New York at the end of next week. But the IOC declined to give any further details about his "full diary" over the next 10 days.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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