Ireland readies for marathon Olympic ticket probe

Ireland's athletes are resting up after Rio but the country’s veteran Olympics chief remains under investigation in the city for alleged ticket touting and his organisation faces an imminent government inquiry at home that is already causing a stir.

The probe conducted by former judge Carroll Moran will scrutinise how the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) and its president, Pat Hickey, handled tickets allocated by the IOC for the Rio Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2012 London Games.

The government has criticised the OCI's own handling of the claims and raised the prospect of a review of the 500,000 euros ($560,000) a year in public funding the body receives, around 33 percent of its budget.

The OCI, which has strongly denied impropriety, has appointed international accountancy firm Grant Thornton to conduct a review amid a wave of public outrage against the country's sporting chiefs.

The inquiry was announced last week by Sports Minister Shane Ross and is expected to last three months.

It will not have the power to compel witnesses to give evidence, leading its many critics to brand it "toothless".

"This is a scandal of international proportions but as long as we can't compel witnesses then it's hard to see how we will ever get to the bottom of this," said Imelda Munster, sports spokeswoman for the opposition Sinn Fein party.

Munster said she wanted the inquiry to probe OCI's governance, particularly its management of tickets and how hundreds of them apparently ended up in the hands of the executive of UK hospitality firm THG.

She said the inquiry should also examine how a local company, Pro10, came to be awarded the contract to distribute OCI tickets when it appears it did not even have a functioning office.

THG had denied the allegations of touting.

Robert Troy, sports spokesman for Fianna Fail, the main opposition party, said there had been "a lack of accountability and transparency" but emphasised everyone was innocent until proven guilty.

- 'Gatekeepers of the sport' -

Hickey, 71, is the most high-profile Irish sports official arrested in Rio last month over the alleged ticket scam.

He has stepped aside temporarily as president of both the OCI, European Olympic Committees, and from the decision making Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee.

The scandal had been mounting since the arrest on August 5 of Kevin Mallon, an Irish director of THG.

Police said they seized hundreds of tickets from Mallon, some of which had the OCI name on them.

Tickets, including for the Rio opening ceremony with a face value of about $1,400 were offered for sale at $8,000, the police said.

Ireland's top Olympic executive, who has held the office for 28 years, was arrested by armed police at the IOC's luxury hotel in Brazil.

He was granted conditional release from jail on Monday due to ill health while he is investigated and remains under house arrest pending trial in Brazil.

There has been little public sympathy for Hickey in Ireland and comparatively little criticism of Brazil's very public handling of touting claims.

In a country where budget austerity has hit hard in recent years, the allegations have instead prompted resentment about the perks enjoyed by top sports officials like Hickey.

"From my experience as an athlete, we're held to the highest standards for everything, and we're very accountable, very answerable," former Irish hurdler Derval O'Rourke said on RTE, the national broadcaster.

"And most athletes earn very little money -- they do it for the love of the sport -- and the least you can expect is integrity and honesty from the people who are the gatekeepers of the sport," she said.

Source: AFP