The son of the second most senior man in world football has admitted to selling tickets to a friend, including the ones for the finals matches. According to a report by the Guardian, Humberto Grondona, who holds a technical adviser post to FIFA has said to Argentinian TV station TyC that he coughed up over $9,000 on 24 category one tickets for group games and knockout matches including the final and a semi-final for an unnamed friend.
Grondona junior said, "I have a friend that is someone very well known in Argentina who wanted to come and I sold to him some of these tickets," he said. "He on his part gave the tickets to another friend, what they then did with the tickets I have no idea."
When pushed to reveal the name of the friend, Grondona said, "I cannot tell you. But do you think I would dirty my hands for $220? The truth is that I have no idea where these tickets went to."
Grondona's involvement in the ticket scandal was reportedly backed up by photos of tickets with his name on them now circulating online.
Grondona junior's father is the controversial Argentinian Julio Grondona, has been on its executive committee since 1988 and also chairs the influential finance committee. The Guardian also said that Grondona railed against British media and the Football Association as FIFA had gotten engulfed in corruption allegations back in 2011.
According to police, Grondona junior is not involved in the multi-million pound ticket scandal uncovered by Operation Jules Rimet, although his ticket was seized in Sao Paulo as the Brazilian operation was underway.
A FIFA spokeswoman has since addressed Grondona junior's involvement and said, "Everybody who violated the regulations will be sanctioned. We need to validate what tickets have been collected, what we received from the police, what was the source of the originals and where they ended up. I can't comment on this case. We need to rely on the investigation that is ongoing. Fifa has a firm stance to sanction anyone who violates its regulations. Anything violated will be sanctioned. Any tickets found for future games will be cancelled and put into the ticket sales."
