Under-fire firm Pro10 says it ‘abhors’ ticket touting

Pro10 Sports Management, the company appointed as Ireland’s Authorised Ticket Reseller (ATR) and whose directors are the subject of arrest warrants, has insisted once again that its process for selling tickets was “fully within ATR guidelines”.

Rio police confirmed that it had issued warrants for the arrests of Michael Glynn, Ken Murray, and Eamonn Collins, as part of the investigation into alleged touting of Olympic tickets.

“Pro10 utterly rejects any insinuation that they have been involved in selling tickets at inflated prices, ticket ‘touting’ or ‘scalping’,” it said. “We abhor such practices.

“The allegation that a portion of the OCI’s Family and Friends tickets were being made available by Pro10 for general sale is utterly untrue and completely without any foundation.”

It accused Brazilian authorities of dealing with the allegations through the media and said they had not made contact with Pro10.

It also said it was already taking legal advice on how to deal with, what it described as “unfound allegations” and claimed it had only been dragged into the issue because of its status as ATR.

“All tickets sold by Pro10 as the Irish ATR for the Rio 2016 Olympics were sold fully in line with the ATR guidelines,” it said.

“These tickets were made available for sale through the authorised ATR process and were sold to legitimate customers of Pro10 at face value plus the allowed ATR reseller fee.”

Both Mr Glynn, 47, and Mr Collins, 47, are registered soccer agents and Pro10 represents, among others, footballers who play or have played for Ipswich town, the club owned by Marcus Evans of THG.

It was THG’s director Kevin Mallon, whose arrest last week and the seizure of almost 800 of the Olympic Council of Ireland’s allocated tickets, brought the ticket scandal to the public’s attention.

Mr Evans along with fellow THG directors David Patrick Gilmore, from Ireland; Maarten Van Os, from the Netherlands, and Martin Studd, from Britain, are also the subject of arrest warrants.

The other Pro10 director who faces arrest is Mr Murray, 41. He is a qualified financial advisor and was a former commercial manager for St Patrick’s Athletic.

Pro10’s website states that it “is a company built on loyalty, trust and hard work”.