By Andrew Warshaw
July 7 – The son of one of FIFA’s most powerful administrators has denied claims he illegally sold a World Cup ticket to touts in order to make money. Humberto Grondona, whose father Julio is FIFA’s senior vice-president as well as being head of the Argentine football association, has been asked to explain how a ticket he bought ended up in the wrong hands.
Last week, 11 arrests were made as part of a ticket scam investigation and the leader of the gang identified as a French-Algerian named Mamadou Fofana.
The case has been linked to Grondona, who is a FIFA coaching instructor and Argentina’s youth team coach.
In an interview with an Argentine television, he admitted he had bought tickets and passed them on – a practise not infrequent at the World Cup by fans but usually after their own team has been knocked out – but that he had no idea what happened to them afterwards.
He denied allegations he had re-sold one ticket at an inflated price, saying he gave a friend the $220 ticket for the Argentina-Switzerland match last Tuesday.
“You think with how much I care about my family name I would do such a stupid thing?” Grondona said in an interview. “The only tickets that bear my name are the tickets I got from FIFA which I’m entitled to as an instructor.”
“I bought all of them for more than $9,000, I have a friend that is someone very well known in Argentina who wanted to come and I sold to him some of these tickets. Do you think I would dirty my hands for $220? The truth is that I have no idea where these tickets went to.”
Reselling tickets at more than face value is illegal at the World Cup and if it is proved that he broke FIFA regulations, the case will be embarrassing for world football’s governing body. Grondona’s father is chairman of FIFA’s finance committee. He has been an executive committee member since 1998.
FIFA, meanwhile, have asked for an explanation from Match, its ticketing partner, as to how some tickets ended up in the possession of Fofana and companies linked to him.
FIFA spokesperson Delia Fischer said: “Match has been requested to provide a complete report on tickets and packages sold to the company of Mr Fofana and further companies. Match should outline the necessary actions being taken, including the cancellation of tickets to any further matches.”
Every World Cup ticket is personalised and Fischer said anyone found guilty of illegal activity would be sanctioned accordingly.
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