IOC: No Rio Ticketing Regulations Breached

(ATR) The IOC insists it has not broken any rules in its handling of Pat Hickey’s requests for the Olympic Council of Ireland ticketing agreement for Rio.

Investigators on Monday released emails between Hickey and IOC officials which show the steps the OCI took in 2015 to make hospitality company THG the sub agent, if Rio 2016 could not approve them as the authorized ticket reseller for Ireland.

Hickey made concerted efforts to get Rio 2016 to approve THG as the sub agent for ticket sales for the OCI. But THG was ultimately rejected by Games organisers who said they were "not confident" the company would follow the rules.

The IOC sought to distance itself from the developing scandal by better explaining its role in discussions with Hickey and the OCI – as well as the responsibilities of Rio 2016.

An IOC spokesperson tells Around the Rings that the Games organizing committee was in charge of ensuring that the ticketing system proposed, including all aspects of distribution - including selection of official travel agents, resellers – "is in strict compliance with all applicable laws and regulations".

"In this particular case the OCOG did not approve the entity THG, proposed by the Olympic Council of Ireland, as authorised ticket reseller," the IOC said.

"OCI in turn complained that the OCOG did not disclose legally defendable reasons for this decision to them."

In order to broker an agreement, the IOC intervened. Several IOC officials take part in discussions with Hickey, in the email exchanges revealed released by Rio police. The IOC’s director of legal affairs Howard Stupp, Pere Miro, deputy director general for relations with the Olympic Movement, and Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi are involved. But there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on their part.

As the IOC spokesperson further explains: "The IOC administration was asked by both parties to facilitate a solution. In the course of these contacts between the OCOG, OCI and the IOC administration many potential solutions were considered."

One was for the OCI to become the authorized ticket reseller as allowed by the terms of the ticket sales agreement. The IOC said this happened in 30 out of 176 cases at the Rio Olympics. Such an agreement also enables a reseller to sublicense its activities if it wishes to do so, the IOC said, subject to Rio 2016’s acceptance of such an agent or sub-agent.

The IOC told ATR that this idea considered by the OCOG, the OCI and the IOC administrations, requested by Hickey in an April 10 2015 email to the IOC and Rio 2016, "was in compliance with all the rules and regulations"

Hickey was told by the IOC that the "strategy" he favored – to make THG the sub-agent – needed to be followed up with Rio 2016.

"This is what actually happened. The IOC administration cannot impose any decision on the OCOG, and because of this also not received any kind of instructions in this respect," the spokesperson said.

The IOC appears keen to show that it had no sway over Rio 2016’s decision to accept or reject THG.

"This you can see from the fact that such a potential solution was never concluded and OCI was not appointed as [reseller] nor was THG appointed as sub-agent," they said.

"In all these exchanges between the IOC administration, OCI and OCOG concerning different ideas, it was always explicitly made clear that any solution ‘must be in compliance with the NOCs obligation under the ticketing sales agreement with Rio 2016 and the Code of Conduct towards the IOC’."

Ultimately, the NOC of Ireland hammered out a ticketing distribution agreement, including the number of tickets to be allocated with Pro 10 accepted by the OCOG as the ticketing reseller.

Hickey and THG executive Kevin Mallon could face a trial on charges of ticket touting, false advertising, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. On the eve of the Rio Olympics, police seized more than 700 tickets allocated to the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Hickey has voluntarily stepped aside from his Olympic functions – head of the European Olympic Committees, IOC board member and OCI president – while his case is heard in Brazil. Hickey is currently living in a Rio apartment paid for by the OCI but cannot leave the country.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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