By Paul Nicholson
November 14 – Ray Whelan, the British director of FIFA’s World Cup marketing affiliate Match who was arrested at the World Cup in July, has in the last few days returned to the UK. Whelan was bailed in August from Brazil’s notorious Bangu prison but has only just received his passport.
Sources in Brazil indicate that he is allowed to stay in the UK for three months, under the Brazilian bail conditions. Brazil does not have an extradition treaty with the UK, but Whelan, who owns a home in Brazil, has said he will return for court dates to clear his name.
Whelan, executive consultant of Match Services – a subsidiary of the company that provides tickets, hospitality and accommodation services for FIFA – was accused of selling VIP World Cup tickets at inflated prices.
Brazilian authorities released taped recordings to a national television station of Whelan discussing expensive hospitality packages with a French-Algerian, Lamine Fofana, alleged to be the leader of the ticket touting ring. However, the accusations that he had more than 500 conversations with Fofana now appear to have been dramatically reduced to just five.
Both Whelan and his bosses at Match insist he has done nothing wrong and that, far from touting, he was legitimately trying to resell packages that had been returned to Match at the last minute by a Brazilian hotel chain.
Appeal judge Marco Aurelio Mello ruled that, while the charges against Whelan were serious, holding him in custody pending a trial hearing served no purpose. He was thus freed from jail and allowed to return to the home he has in Rio.
Whelan’s lawyer, Fernando Fernandes, said: “The supreme court has ruled that the arrest was illegal from the first moment.” The next step, he said, would be to obtain access to the evidence which the prosecution apparently possesses but has yet to make public. It now appears that the evidence the police claimed that had is not as compelling
Eleven other individuals have been arrested in the police probe and local reports said Whelan could face up to four years in jail if found to have been involved in the illegal resale of tickets or and related activities including money laundering.
But in an interview in the summer with INSIDEworldfootball (http://www.insideworldfootball.com/world-cup/brazil-2014/15112-byrom-says-match-s-whelan-was-selling-packages-at-their-face-value-not-touting?highlight=WyJyYXkiLCJ3aGVsYW4iLCJyYXkgd2hlbGFuIl0=), Match boss Jaime Byrom said Whelan’s arrest was as a result of a huge misunderstanding. “It was perfectly normal for Ray to try and find another client on our behalf,” said Byrom. “Television viewers for some reason thought he was trying to sell a ticket whereas in fact he was trying to sell a package at the published price, all perfectly above board.”
Police claimed that the gang involved had been earning more than $400,000 per game on tickets sold at up to 10 times their face value. But Byrom says the company can vouch for every one of the 83 tickets Whelan was apparently in possession of when originally arrested. Most of them, says Byrom, were in-house company tickets for family and friends.
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