LONDON: Match Services was created to operate local ticketing activities at the World Cup finals and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UK-based Byrom group based out of Cheadle, south of Manchester.

Another subsidiary, in which Byrom owns a majority shareholding, is Match Hospitality. This is FIFA’s corporate hospitality agent.

Ray Whelan works for Match Services though it was Match Hospitality which issued an initial company statement seeking to explain his role in the tickets deal targeted by police.

This, company chairman Jaime Byrom said yesterday in London, was because the particular sale concerned hospitality being returned from Match Hospitality to the ticketing inventory of Match Services.

Byrom also said that the Match titles far from being confusing, merely represented the company’s strategy of creating a ‘brand’ to represent the different strands of the company’s  activities.

Match Hospitality shareholders include a FIFA commercial partner, Infront Sports and Media (five per cent), and Dentsu, the Japanese advertising and marketing giant. Infront’s chief executive is Philippe Blatter, the nephew of FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The last published accounts for family-owned Byrom, founded by Mexican brothers Jaime and Enrique Byrom, showed a turnover of £60.7m for the year to September 30, 2013, with pre-tax profits rising to £5.1m.

Company accounts have indicated that Match Hospitality and another subsidiary entered into a loan agreement with FIFA to fund the companies’ obligation to provide accommodation services in Brazil.

KEIR RADNEDGE

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