It seems that the harder you chase after clarity the more elusive it becomes. Minister Shane Ross and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport are coming under greater political pressure to ‘get tough’ with the Olympic Council of Ireland over transparency around the ticketing scandal in Rio.
Arrest warrants have now been issued for more individuals associated to THG, including one other Irish citizen, though the company says there is no evidence to support what the local police are claiming and that they will vigorously contest any charges brought against them.
Pro10, the official Authorised Ticket reseller for Ireland released more information yesterday saying that 311 of the tickets seized in Rio had been sold to corporate customers from Ireland and the EU and that 470 had been unsold due to lack of demand.
It also intimated that it was the poor sales take up which had prompted them not to have somebody physically on the ground in Rio.
This additional information does make the situation clearer and again casts doubt on why the Olympic Council should so steadfastly refuse to cooperate with an independent element to its own internal investigation.
It did not help matters yesterday when issuing the following statement:
“Minister Ross referred to the OCI being taxpayer-funded in a media interview on Sunday night.”
“The OCI receives approximately €200,000 of government funding per year, which is earmarked specifically for athlete development and is audited annually.”
“The vast majority of the OCI’s revenue is derived from the IOC and its own commercial partnerships.”
“The OCI is a non-profit organisation and as a publicly registered company our financial information is available in the Companies Registration Office.
The figure of €200,000 is in contrast to the figures published by Sport Ireland, revealed on Sport for Business yesterday, which show a very specific and exact amount of €1,721,088 being channelled from Government to the Olympic Council of Ireland over the past four years, €520,000 of this in 2016.
Once again, there is no suggestion of any impropriety or wrongdoing but where public money is distributed then transparency needs to be absolute.
It is undoubtedly the case that most of this money goes straight out to other sporting bodies but that clarity of where and why, easily explained, is being kept from the public and the politicians. They don’t like it and with a budget process underway at the moment the likely ultimate loser in this is sport in its wider context.
Something needs to give in this Brazilian stand-off.
Sport for Business’ Coverage of the 2016 Olympic Games is supported by Team Ireland Official Partner Electric Ireland #ThePowerWithin
