The German newspaper which published the Panama Papers earlier this year has made some remarkable claims involving Pat Hickey and IOC president Thomas Bach.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, the largest subscription daily newspaper in Germany, claims to have seen emails from Hickey to Bach in which the OCI chief requested 500 tickets for the men’s football final after Ireland were allocated none - this perhaps due to the country not being involved in football at Rio.
According to SZ, in July last year Hickey also asked for 188 instead of 38 tickets for the opening ceremony, 128 instead of 28 for the closing ceremony, 242 rather than 42 for the 100m final, and 30 instead of zero for the men’s basketball final.
These numbers would be far larger than a country of Ireland's size would expect to be allocated, particularly for events that we didn't qualify for or enter.
SZ report that Rio police are investigating both Pat Hickey's emails and phone, and claim two email conversations between Hickey and Bach from last summer "quite explicitly comes to ticket issues." John Aumüller and Thomas Kistner of the Bavarian-based publication also state that Hickey was "quite obviously annoyed" in an email to Bach from late July, in which the then-OCI president 'repeatedly' states to Bach, "We ask for more tickets."
The emails are reported to have been found on Pat Hickey’s computer after it was seized by police in Rio. However, they contain no evidence of criminal activity. Hickey was within his rights to request more tickets from the IOC president.
SZ also confirm that the IOC did not deny that such a conversation between Hickey and Bach took place. Hickey is due to be released on bail later today.
