Brazilian police arrested Pat Hickey, the head of the European Olympic Committees and president of the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI), earlier today in relation to their ongoing investigation into the alleged selling of tickets at inflated prices at the Rio Games.
Previously they issued a warrant for the arrest of Town owner Marcus Evans and three other directors of his THG Sports company, which they have said they will pursue with Interpol.
Hickey was arrested at 6am local time at the Windsor Hotel but was subsequently taken to hospital after complaining of feeling unwell, citing an existing heart condition. He later temporarily relinquished all his Olympic roles.
At a press conference regarding Hickey's arrest earlier this afternoon Brazilian police said that they had found evidence of messages and emails exchanged between the 71-year-old and Evans during the Olympics on his phone.
THG were the Authorised Ticket Reseller (ATR) for the OCI at London 2012 and Sochi 2014 but not at the current Games. Hickey’s son Stephan reportedly worked for THG at the London Games.
Brazilian police have also issued a warrant for the arrest of the three directors of the current OCI reseller, Pro 10, who include Eamonn Collins, a football agent who has Town striker Daryl Murphy among his clients. The police allege Pro 10 was created to source tickets for THG.
In statements previously issued, both THG and Pro 10 have denied any wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, THG have confirmed that they had a "commercial arrangement” with Pro 10.
"Because they had procured tickets from them as they had to because Pro 10 was the authorised seller, so there was a commercial arrangement between them," a spokesman for THG told the Irish Independent.
"Broadly, they had a commercial arrangement because that's what hospitality people do when they go to procure tickets from the ATR.”
The story first broke when THG’s Kevin James Mallon was arrested in his hotel room with around 1,000 tickets to various Olympic events issued to the OCI, which Pro 10 would have been responsible for allocating.
Both companies have said Mallon was acting as a voluntary distribution point for tickets on Pro 10’s behalf, in addition to tickets THG had legally procured from the ATR.
Pro 10 have also confirmed that THG provided them with an out of hours ticket hotline for customers in Rio.
"Because of the time difference between Ireland and Brazil, the Pro 10 phone line diverted to the THG phone line as this phone line was manned round the clock and could deal with any collection queries for Pro 10 customers,” a spokesman told the Irish Times.
"As a THG employee was assisting with ticket collection, this would ensure customers could access information on how to collect the tickets they had paid Pro 10 for if a Pro 10 employee was not available to provide them with the collection details.”