LONDON: In the closing stages of the World Cup, as Argentina’s footballers headed towards the final, one of the sons of FIFA’s senior vice-president Julio Grondona ‘outed’ himself for passing on match tickets.

As Rio police pressed on withOperacao Jules Rimet so Humberto Grondona said in an interview on the Argentinian TyC TV channel that he had been provided with tickets from the Argentinian football federation and had sold them on to friends at face value.

He admitted he had no idea what happened to them after that. His admission followed the seizure by police, during raids in Rio and Sao Paulo, of World Cup tickets, foreign currency, passports and mobile phones.

Grondona, a member of the Argentina delegation and their youth team coach, was confronted by the media after discovery of a ticket sold illicitly, and at double face value, and which was printed with his name.

FIFA Instructor

He said: “I am a FIFA coaching instructor so I had four tickets for the quarterfinals of the World Cup, two for semi-final and two final.I have a friend in Argentina to whom I sold some tickets and he, in turn, gave them to another friend. Now, what they did with the tickets, I do not know.

“Do you think I would dirty my hands for $220? I have no need to resell a ticket.”

World Cup tickets contain a chip with full details of the purchaser so that they an be traced back to source if they turn up on the black market. Under the terms of sale the purchaser is responsible for ticket and the person who uses it for access to matches. Resale is only permitted back into the FIFA ticketing system.

Ticket touting – ie reselling tickets at over face value – is a criminal offence in Brazil.

KEIR RADNEDGE

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