Pat Hickey hopes to be released into house arrest in Brazil within days but his claims to innocence have not been helped by news over the weekend that a review of Olympic Council of Ireland Board minutes reveal no collective decision on the appointment of PRO10 as the Authorised Ticket Reseller.
It was inevitable in the heat of the moment that a studied, measured review with everything held to the end of the process was unlikely but we can now prepare for piecemeal snippets after the Arthur Cox review was advised to OCI Board members and appeared in media reports within hours.
It shows that a trawl of minutes from Executive Committee meeting revealed no mention of the appointment of PRO10, casting a shadow over Hickey’s reported insistence that all the decisions in the ticketing area were made by the organisation as opposed to by any one individual.
The Hospitality Group Finance Director Kevin Mallon, who was the first arrested in the scandal has now been released from high security prison where he was sharing a cell with Hickey. He has to remain in Rio, under a curfew and house arrest until the investigation reaches its next point.
President Michael D Higgins talked about the damage being done to the reputation of Irish sports administration over the weekend as he hosted a welcome party at Aras an Uachtarain for 26 of the returning Irish Olympians.
