The case is closed. Patrick Hickey, the former president of the Irish Olympic Committee and the Association of European Olympic Committees and a “provisionally suspended” member of the IOC Executive Board, can once again walk the streets of Dublin without razing the walls. Irish justice cleared him in the investigation carried out for a year into alleged ticket trafficking for the Rio 2016 Games. End of story.
The information is not yet official, it should become so next week, with the publication of the 226-page report of the commission of inquiry mandated by the Irish judicial authorities. L'Irish Independent had access to it. The daily newspaper exclusively reveals the main points and conclusions.
Patrick Hickey is cleared, therefore. At the end of an investigation supposed to last 3 months, but ultimately extended to almost a year, the Olympic leader was found innocent of suspicions of corruption and illegal sale of tickets for the Games. Arrested by Brazilian police during the Games, in his hotel room in Rio de Janeiro, Patrick Hickey was placed in detention, initially in a prison, then under house arrest in an apartment in the city center. He stayed there for 7 months.
Cleared but found guilty. In their report, investigators insist on the absence of financial evidence of any involvement by Patrick Hickey in the illegal sale of tickets. But they point the finger at his very haphazard management, to say the least, of the Irish Olympic committee.
He is particularly accused of his very close links with the company THG of British billionaire Marcus Evans, specializing in the sale of tickets for major sporting events. Patrick Hickey's lawyers have always denied the existence of any direct relationship between their client and THG, but the report includes several emails exchanged before the Rio Games between the former president of the Irish Olympic committee and Marcus Evans.
According to investigators, Patrick Hickey personally managed this file, without writing any minutes of the meetings between the two parties. Between 2010 and 2016, its partnership with THG brought the Irish Olympic Committee a tidy sum of 1,6 million euros.
Another gray area: the remuneration of Patrick Hickey. Presumed to be a volunteer, the septuagenarian (72 years old) received annual compensation of 60.000 euros, a sum deemed “excessive” by Irish justice. In its conclusion, the report suggests that under the presidency of Patrick Hickey, the Irish Olympic Committee was “more concerned with its commercial interests than with its role in supporting and accompanying the Olympic team. »
Patrick Hickey takes it for his rank. But he is not the only one. At the end of their long months of work, Irish investigators also point the finger at two stakeholders in the affair, the IOC and the organizing committee for the Rio 2016 Games. Two players in the case who, according to theIrish Independent, stood out for their silence, or even their lack of cooperation, on the Patrick Hickey affair. The organizing committee for the 2016 Games, in particular, did not even bother to respond to letters from the Irish justice system.
One question remains: will Patrick Hickey regain his position as an IOC member? Answer next month in Lima.
