Match Hospitality director arrested in connection with illegal ticket resales
According to several reports, Ray Whelan, a British executive with Match Hospitality, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on Monday night. Whelan is the 12th person to be placed in custody in connection with an ongoing investigation into a ticket resale scam that is alleged to have been in operation for at least four World Cups.
After paying $240-million for the exclusive rights to sell hospitality packages at the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, Match Hospitality is considered the main provider for corporations looking to attend the event. Of the 3-million tickets available for the tournament, almost half-a-million were allocated to Match to sell as part of hospitality packages to large corporations.
FIFA's rules dictate that any tickets from this allocation that go unsold are to be returned, and made available to the public. Reselling World Cup tickets for profit is illegal in Brazil, and against the very same FIFA rules. However, last week, police estimated that this specific resale ring was bringing in as much as $500,000 per match.
Match also has more than merely a business relationship with the football body, as Philippe Blatter — the nephew of FIFA president Sepp Blatter — is the president of a company which is a shareholder in Match.
FIFA has released the following statement:
FIFA has learned that Ray Whelan, director of the office of the Match Accommodation Services, a provider of services for the Cup, was taken from the hotel Copacabana Palace by police for questioning for his alleged involvement with regard to the 'Operation Jules Rimet' .
FIFA continues cooperating fully with local authorities and provide all the details requested to assist in this ongoing investigation.
As mentioned on several occasions, FIFA would like to reiterate its firm stance against any form of violation of criminal law and the issuance of tickets regulation. FIFA is fully supporting the security authorities in our joint efforts to crack down all unauthorized ticket sales.