Olympic Council of Ireland secures end to contracts with THG

The language of the Olympic Council of Ireland’s (OCI) statement on their severance with contracted Olympic ticket reselling company THG is polite legalese and devoid of the barely disguised outrage that preceded it.

The revelation that former OCI president Pat Hickey had brokered a deal with the THG that ran from 2018 to 2026 without board approval was greeted with great sighs of despair at the last Oireachtas committee hearing in August.

While it was known that the Judge Moran Report into alleged ticket touting in last year's Olympics in Brazil revealed THG and Pro10 companies paid a total of $1.6 million to get rights to resell Ireland's tickets in the London, Sochi and Rio games, the cost of undoing the deal for the next three Olympics was not revealed.

“Terms of agreement confidential,” said the OCI in an email.

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However, the settlement with millionaire Ipswich Town owner Marcus Evans and his firm, which has been the OCI's most significant commercial partner since coming on board in 2010, appears to have been agreeable.

“The OCI wishes to acknowledge THG’s willingness to reach an amicable resolution in this matter,” said the statement.

The resolution came only following mediation carried out by former Supreme Court Judge Mr Justice Finnegan.

But the Judge Moran Report revealed that Pro10, which was engaged by the OCI to sell tickets in Rio, walked like THG, looked like THG and quacked like THG but said it was not THG.

Moran said Pro10 was “not genuine” and was used to hide the involvement of banned ticket reseller THG. He said Pro10’s “involvement disguised the continuing role of THG and Marcus Evans as the real or de facto ATR (authorised ticket reseller).”

Credit card

Moran also revealed that like the Irish Olympic team athletes, save the O'Donovan brothers and Annalise Murphy, Pro10 had a very poor Olympic Games.

He said that the information provided about how to contact Pro10 was sparse, their website basic and the whole service provided was substandard.

He added that credit card details were required in writing, which was an “amateurish practice” in the context of security.

Plenty of grounds you would have thought to reverse out of the deal going forward without too much pain to the now financially-strapped OCI. Not to mention the fact that the International Olympic Committee pointedly would not deal with THG. They had to go.

“OCI accepts that these contracts were enforceable as between the parties and that THG fully intended performing its contractual obligations,” said the OCI statement.

It brings to an end one tranche of the ongoing OCI problems and their efforts to evolve into a normally functioning governing body that is intent on moving from an organisation that Cork TD Mick Barry called a 'personal fiefdom' of Hickey into a council with transparent corporate governance.

But there is one sticking point.

Traditionally a confidentiality clause is a way of saying nothing without explanation. It has a satisfied ring to it, a fait accompli to reveal zip.

To avoid being compared with the old regime, the OCI might need to ask whether guarded four word responses to a question about how much it cost to reverse out of the THG contracts is a full enough reply given the past 29 years of opaque dealings.