By Andrew Warshaw
July 23 – Jaime Byrom, one of the founders of long-established FIFA marketing affiliate Match, is confident the World Cup ticket tout investigation in Brazil will not jeopardise the group’s relationship with world football’s governing body when it comes to future contracts.
Byrom was returning to Brazil today to try and secure the release of Ray Whelan, executive consultant of Match Services – a subsidiary of the company that provides tickets, hospitality and accommodation services for FIFA – who is being held in custody at the notorious Bangu Prison in Rio de Janeiro as part of an ongoing nationwide probe into touting.
Byrom insists Whelan has done nothing wrong and has been unfairly detained but the story has heaped unwanted publicity on his group of companies. Match Services and Match Hospitality have long worked with FIFA in the spheres of accommodation, hospitality, ticketing and IT services but with FIFA keener than ever to distance itself from any suggestion of malpractise following years of various corruption allegations, the relationship between the two parties could now become strained.
Bryom is confident this will not happen when it comes to renewing contracts. The current hospitality deal goes up to 2023, accommodation until 2018. Which leaves the thorny issue of ticketing which is expiring and over which a decision about any extension will have to be decided sooner rather than later.
“We certainly hope our ticketing arrangement with FIFA will be extended because we have served them for over 20 years,” Byrom told INSIDEworldfootball in the second part of a two-part interview.
“It would certainly not be ideal for practical reasons if we were kept on for accommodation and hospitality but not for ticketing. It’s FIFA’s prerogative of course but at the end of the day they know as well as we do what this business with Ray is about.
“Ticketing is a very emotive subject. Everybody thinks people are up to no good. But the only reason we are still around is that FIFA have found us a reliable service company.”
Indeed, Byrom remains hugely proud of Match’s reputation. “We have never once been taken to court in 23 years,” he said. “Some people may find this surprising because in a service industry like ours you do sometimes fall out with people.”
“Let me tell you something else. We have just come out of the most successful World Cup ever. It hasn’t been easy but we have not had a single refund or a single claim for compensation. Except one – and that was over lack of parking. How’s that for performance?”
Byrom said “huge numbers” of people had written in to support Whelan, often the public face of Match who is known by scores of football federations worldwide. “Right now, we are only interested in two simple steps: getting Ray out of jail and helping the authorities put things in perspective.”
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