We must get to bottom of ticket touting

More confusing than boxing judges decisions, more complex than the rules of synchronised swimming, and more bizarre than BMXers competing at the Olympics, one could be forgiven for struggling to follow Ireland’s Rio Games ticket touting scandal.

Company accounts, international arrest warrants for a multi-millionaire football club owner, separate investigations on two continents and a simmering row between a Government politician and — in sporting circles at least — the most political official of them all, mean what is happening right now is far less clear cut than the result of an Usain Bolt 100 metres race.

However, while it is frustrating, this complexity is exactly why the multi-million euro controversy threatening to over-shadow the four-yearly celebration of world sport is so necessary to follow to the end what is increasingly looking more like a nail-biting marathon than a short-lived sprint.