On Monday night, authorities in Brazil has arrested a British director of the hospitality provider of this year's World Cup as part of its investigation in the illegal sale of tournament tickets. The Telegraph reported that Ray Whelan, whose prior work was as an agent for Sir Bobby Charlton, was detained in Rio de Janeiro as part of Operation Jules Rimet, a police probe into the £200 million ticket sale operation.
Whelan, who is an executive of Match Hospitality was arrested at the official accommodation of FIFA president Sepp Blatter, Copacabana Palace Hotel. The hotel is also home of other senior officials of the world soccer body. This was also confirmed by a Rio de Janeiro State Security Secretariat spokesperson, who said that Whelan is in custody and would be spending the night in a local police station.
Whelan would be the 12th person arrested in connection of alleged scalping of World Cup tickets after police had claimed to have smashed into an international group, the Telegraph said. Last week, there are 131 tickets seized, of which at least 70 of them were for corporate hospitality. Police also claimed that the racket could have operated at around four World Cup tourneys, amassing a maximum of £52 million per event. Whelan and the others could face money laundering, criminal association and illegally selling tickets charges.
Although Whelan is not a FIFA employee, he is well known in the last few years thanks to Match, which is a division of Byrom Plc. The British paper also said that Blatter's nephew, Philippe, is the president of a company who has a shareholder interest in Match.
As a response to the illegal ticket seizure of the police earlier, Match has already announced the blocking of sales to four companies who were touted to have engaged in illegal ticket sales.
