The Chief Executive of the Football Association of Ireland, John Delaney, has lodged two defamation lawsuits regarding the coverage that the Rio 2016 ticket tout investigation has received.
Delaney's representatives, A&L Goodbody, have issued High Court proceedings to the Irish Examiner and Maximum Media Network's SportsJoe.ie, as well as sending formal letters to the Irish Independent, the Irish Sun, and TheJournal.ie regarding their coverage of the scandal.
The FAI Chief Executive alluded to the upcoming lawsuits in a statement his released earlier this week, saying that " certain media outlets took the opportunity to make the most serious and defamatory allegations against me".
Delaney, who is also the Olympic Council of Ireland's vice president, said that "over the past number of weeks, the OCI Rio Olympics ticketing issue has dominated the headlines and a number of serious allegations were made by a section of the Irish media suggesting involvement and wrongdoing on my behalf".
“These allegations arose out of events in Brazil, in particular the issuing of a warrant against my passport by the Brazilian authorities. As everyone should now be aware, this warrant was subsequently withdrawn, 10 days ago. In fact, the Brazilian police have never made any contact with me in relation to this issue."
He added that: "These matters are now in the hands of my legal advisers and so I cannot comment further other than to confirm I had no knowledge of, or involvement in, anything to do with tickets for the Rio Games."
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