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Olympic body chief faces heat in ticket scam
LAUSANNE: Recently under pressure in the Russian doping scandal, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach now faces further problems with Brazilian
LAUSANNE: Recently under pressure in the Russian doping scandal, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach now faces further problems with Brazilian police wanting to call him as a witness in a suspected Olympic ticket scam.
Rio de Janeiro police official Ronaldo Oliveira said investigators had seen an email that the top suspect in the probe, Ireland’s Olympic chief Patrick Hickey, sent to Bach requesting tickets.
“We want to question Thomas Bach as a witness because he features in emails and we want to clear up certain uncertainties,” Oliveira said on Thursday.
The German Bach failed to attend the opening ceremony of the Paralympics in Rio this week and the IOC said he has no immediate plans to go back there. However, the IOC insisted they are ready to fully cooperate with Brazilian police, but say they have had no request for testimony from them.
“Neither the IOC nor the IOC President have been contacted by any Brazilian authority concerning a request for information,” a statement said on Friday.
“The IOC is in this respect only informed by media.
“This includes the publication of obviously private messages not related to the allegations against Mr Hickey by the police.
“There was and there is no request for a hearing as witness for any IOC official.”
The police move comes just after Bach was criticised for the handling of the allegations of state sponsored doping in Russia and for the handling of organising the Games in Rio.
Now Bach is caught up in an affair which centres on the August 17 arrest of Hickey, who is suspected of illegally trading Olympic tickets.
An IOC member since 1995 Hickey, 71, was arrested on August 17 before being released on health grounds under condition of remaining in Brazil.
Frenchman Jerome Valcke lost his post as FIFA general secretary after presumed implication in a ticket touting ring during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Rio police seized some 781 tickets which they say were destined to be sold on the black market and also claim that around $3 million were generated by the ticket scam.
