A World Cup ticket scalping case has revived a reputation FIFA tries hard to fight, and threatens to stain a tournament which has been better than critics expected.
Football’s international governing body and its President Sepp Blatter have tried to present a new face in recent years after so many allegations of vote-buying and top officials seeming entitled to seeking favours.
Though many rules and faces have changed at the game’s headquarters, a skeptical view that the old culture remains in the inner circle has been fuelled by the arrest this week of a director from a longtime World Cup commercial partner.
Released from custody by Rio de Janeiro police early yesterday, Ray Whelan returned to work within hours at the five-star hotel where Blatter stays and the MATCH group of companies operates during FIFA’s showpiece event.
The Copacabana Palace is also where police conducted parts of an undercover operation known as Jules Rimet, named after the former FIFA president who launched the World Cup in 1930.
Whelan, a brother-in-law of MATCH founders Jaime and Enrique Byrom, is suspected of providing tickets to a scalping ring dealing corporate hospitality packages at highly inflated prices. Reselling tickets for profit is illegal in Brazil.
Rights to the $600-million market in World Cup corporate tickets are owned by the MATCH Hospitality subsidiary.
Its minority shareholders include a sports agency in Switzerland run by Philippe Blatter, a nephew of the FIFA President.
“MATCH have complete faith that the facts will establish that he (Whelan) has not violated any laws,” the company said.
The scalping probe is an embarrassment for FIFA and provoked awkward questions after weeks in which predicted street protests in 12 host cities did not materialise on a mass scale.
FIFA has worked with the Byrom family from Mexico for more than 30 years and awarded contracts to the family’s companies since the 1994 World Cup in the US.
Asked if Whelan’s accreditation would be revoked, FIFA spokeswoman Delia Fischer said football officials couldn’t act before getting a full report from police.