The Olympic Council of Ireland’s new president, Sarah Keane, has apologised to the families of athletes who failed to get tickets for Rio 2016 summer Olympic Games.
The relatives of some of Ireland’s Olympians were allegedly forced to go abroad to find tickets for the Games, after being unable to do so through Ireland’s official seller, PRO10.
Former OCI president Patrick Hickey was arrested in Brazil on allegations that he was involved in a ticketing scandal at last summer’s Games. He had held the position since 1988 until last month’s vote for Keane to fill the post ended his 28-year tenure.
“I apologise to the families, I apologise to the athletes who had that stress on them,” Keane told the Irish Sun.
“The families are part of the journey for the athletes and they’re very committed. They are the ones that get the child involved in the first place and put money into it.
“As an organisation we do what we can, but when the athletes fall it’s their families that are picking them up first and we try to support that and they want to be there to see them at the Games.”
Fallout from the scandal has so far cost the organisation approximately €900,000 (£788,000/$958,000) in “emergency expenditure”.
According to a report delivered by OCI honorary treasurer William Kennedy, only €90,498 of this has so far been reimbursed through insurance payouts.
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