ROMARIO might have netted 55 times for Brazil and won the World Cup – but his latest score could be his biggest as a politician.
The former striker is now a senator in his home country and his influence seems to have been crucial in the arrest of Irish IOC member Pat Hickey.
IMAGE: PA:Press Association
IMAGE: Getty Images
IMAGE: AP:Associated Press
IMAGE: Universal News And Sport (Europe)
IMAGE: Universal News And Sport (Europe)
The 71-year-old is accused of facilitating black market ticket touting at the Rio Olympics.
Selling even one ticket for above its face value is a crime in Brazil.
Rio police allege Hickey was part of a scam invovling Ireland’s official Games ticket reailer and an international sports hospitality company.
Cops suspect Hickey was involved in a scam to invite wealthy Brazilians to a hospitality event and sell them tickets at several times their market value.
According to police commissioner Ricardo Barboza de Souza, tickets with a face value of £340 were being sold for £5,900 and one group of Brazilians spent £51,000 on marked-up tickets.
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As a result Hickey has been sent to one of Brazil’s most high-security prisons and had his head shaved.
When arrested, the former Olympic Council of Ireland chief answered the door of his plush luxuary hotel room NAKED and had to put on a dressing gown before he was taken away.
Hickey was also one of the many IOC officials given a £680-A-DAY food allowance in Rio.
But Romario has told of how his speech four years before set the wheels in motion for Hickey to get arrested.
IMAGE: Getty Images
He tweeted after the sting: “And the ticket mafia gets caught! Well, four years ago I had already told the government.”
Barboza added: “Romario, who is a former footballer, is now an important politician here…. He tipped us off in 2012. He already denounced Pat and said ‘there is something going on here.’
“That was a very big factor. In the parliament he made it public. He said it in front of everyone about Pat Hickey.”
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