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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 6 JULY 2014 47 FIFA has no knowledge of one of its members involved in ticket affair FIFA has no knowledge that a member from within its ranks is suspected by Brazilian police of involvement in the illegal sale of World Cup tickets, the ruling body said Saturday. FIFA marketing director Thierry Weil told a news conference that it has not been approached by the lo- cal authorities over this. "If they had a name they would have investigated. What I know is that no one from FIFA has been ap- proached," Weil said. Brazilian police have reportedly been investigating the practice for several months. Eleven arrests have reportedly been carried out, and Weil said that FIFA have scanned and traced back 141 tickets given to them by the police. Weil said that 71 of the tickets were sold by hospitality partners to agencies who then illegally passed them on, one from the Brazilian football federation, and the other 60 from general public sales. Two of the tickets are for next week's third-place match, the oth- ers from past 2014 World Cup games but also the 2010 World Cup and 2013 Confederations Cup. Selling tickets at higher prices than face value is a criminal offence in Brazil and also prohibited by ticket rules. It was not clear whether the police have more tickets which they have not made available for FIFA. There is also speculation that the authori- ties are withholding information from FIFA because of the suspected FIFA link. "It was probably the tickets they couldn't sell. We can only comment on what we have from the police. I don't know the volume of tick- ets. The police should give us the number of tickets," Weil said. Tickets have been personalised since 2006, and at that tournament in Germany FIFA executive mem- ber Ismail Bhamjee of Botswana lost all his positions after being exposed for selling tickets at three times their face value. The scanned tickets don't include tickets which Humberto Grondona, the son of Argentine football boss and FIFA vice president Julio Gron- dona, said he sold on to a friend. Grilled over the issue, Weil even- tually said that Grondona has been questioned by FIFA, without giving further details. Weil was critical that details in the main probe have been leaked to the media by Brazilian investigators but dismissed some of the circulat- ing figures by saying he was told that police were looking into 900 tapped phone calls and not 50,000 as named. The ticket selling ring is said to have made 2 million Reais (910,000 dollars) per match from the schemes which could have been going on for several World Cups. One of the arrested suspects is said to be an Algerian national named Mohamadou Fofana who allegedly had free access to FIFA areas in Rio and according to Weil owns an agency which bought 10 of the seized hospitality match pack- ages. "Ten hospitality packages are coming from Atlanta Sportif from Dubai. It belongs to Mr Fofana," Weil said. The other 61 seized hospitality packages came from other agen- cies and Weil named the schemes "clearly a criminal act." Hospitality packages are sold by a company called Match Hospital- ity which according to Weil has the rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups as well. General public tickets are handled by an unrelated entity, Match Services, on a contract which runs to 2014. Weil said that tickets for the general public are personalised to avoid scams, but that passing on or reselling at face value is possi- ble, although the new name must be entered at the FIFA ticket sales portal. Hospitality tickets are only al- located to the respective company, with FIFA having to request per- sonal data from them. Weil said FIFA has made great strides to counter scalping in recent years but that total control is sim- ply not possible because demand is so high - there were 11 million ap- plications for the 3.1 million tickets for the Brazil World Cup - and some people are simply out to resell tick- ets for a profit. He also said it was impossible to check every ticket holder at a stadium. "We try to make it transparent and fair. The problem is the number of requests which allows a black mar- ket," he said. "People take advantage for the purpose of reselling." Ronaldo, Matthaeus speak out for video evidence FORMER World Cup winners Ron- aldo and Lothar Matthaeus support the introduction of video evidence for controversial scenes, suggested recently by world football supremo Joseph Blatter. The Brazilian Ronaldo and Ger- many's Matthaeus told reporters on Saturday that the debut of goalline technology has had a positive effect, and that more should be done to help the referees. The FIFA president Blatter last month suggested two challenges per half for coaches via video evidence when the ball is out of play, such as deciding whether a foul is worth a penalty kick. "Goalline technology did not hinder emotions in the game. It is fair and honest. The debate must grow that we use technology on behalf of foot- ball," the 2002 world champion Ron- aldo said. Matthaeus, who captained Ger- many to the title in 1990, said: "We should make use of all means to make the game correct and more honest. We will always be discussing a shirt pull but we must support the referees more. They have to make decisions in a split second." Goalline technology made a suc- cessful debut at the Brazil tourna- ment, determining a French goal against Honduras in a scene which could not be properly decided by the referee. The 2014 World Cup Get all the latest updates Lothar Matthäus Ronaldo