Humberto Grondona admitted on Argentinian TV that he had sold on tickets from the final to a friend. Photograph: Paul Gilham/FIFA via Getty Images
The son of Julio Grondona, the second most senior man in world football and a senior Fifa vice-president, has become embroiled in a World Cup ticket scandal.
Humberto Grondona, who has a post as a technical adviser to world football's governing body, admitted selling on tickets to a friend, including. The batch included two tickets to the final.
The controversial Argentinean Julio Grondona, who railed against the British press and the FA as Fifa became engulfed in corruption allegations in 2011, has been on its executive committee since 1988 and also chairs the influential finance committee.
Grondona junior told Argentinian TV station TyC he spent more than $9,000 on 24 category one tickets for group games and knockout matches including the final and a semi-final.
'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,' he said. 'He on his part gave the tickets to another friend, what they then did with the tickets I have no idea.'
Asked for the identity of the person he sold the tickets to, Grondona junior added: 'I cannot tell you. But do you think I would dirty my hands for $220? The truth is that I have no idea where these tickets went to.'
The involvement of Grondona's son was confirmed by pictures that circulated of tickets with his name on them.
It will be a huge embarrassment to Fifa at a time when Rio police are clamping down on a match-fixing ring alleged to have operated from the Copacabana Palace, where Fifa president Sepp Blatter and all its senior executives are staying.
Grondona junior is not the Fifa official at the heart of the multi-million pound ticket scandal uncovered by Operation Jules Rimet, however, according to police. His ticket was seized by São Paulo police from touts in that city.
Fabio Barucke, the police investigator in charge of the Rio investigation, said a Fifa official who was a source of the tickets had access to Fifa offices and stadiums and match tickets. Some tickets have been resold for eight times their face value. Barucke said the ticketing ring aimed to make up to £60m by illegally reselling tickets and that the group had operated at previous World Cups.
The suspected ringleader has been named as Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, an Algerian man who was previously staying at the Copacabana Palace.
Barucke believes Fofana was the middleman and that the ticket source was 'someone higher up' the chain. A Fifa spokeswoman urged the media not to jump to conclusions and insisted the matter was being properly dealt with.
'Everybody who violated the regulations will be sanctioned. We need to validate what tickets have been collected, what we received from the police, what was the source of the originals and where they ended up. I can't comment on this case,' she said.
'We need to rely on the investigation that is ongoing. Fifa has a firm stance to sanction anyone who violates its regulations. Anything violated will be sanctioned. Any tickets found for future games will be cancelled and put into the ticket sales.'
Post By http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/04/son-fifa-vice-president-julio-grondona-humberto-ticket-scandal-world-cup
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