A trusted FIFA employee has allegedly sold confidential lists containing personal information of 60,000 people onto the black market.
Norwegian website, Dagbladet, has uncovered the list which contains information regarding the full name, date of birth and passport number of unsuspecting ticket buyers.
FIFA do their utmost to prevent their tickets being distributed within the black market. However it now seems that a member from within football’s governing body is making money on the snide by leaking personal information to the culprits.
Such vital information is invaluable for ticket touts to get in touch with ticket owners and offer to buy their tickets. They will then sell the same tickets for vastly large fee’s within the black market. Some countries are so sceptical over such incidents they have refused to send the relevant information to FIFA.
An employee working for Match Hospitality, FIFA’s official ticket provider, has sent e-mails offering major sellers on the black market possession of ticket lists. The employee offered each name on the sheet for €2.50. Dagbladet knows the identity of the culprit who then sent other e-mails boasting about his new role within the sale of VIP tickets at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
James Byron, chairman of Match Event Services finds the revelations hard to believe. He told Dagbledet that he believes the company has full control over the sale of tickets and has no reason to believe otherwise – except for the representations presented to him by the website.
With tens of thousands of names being sold to ticket sharks for around €2 each, the sellers are making huge amounts of money. The list that Dagbladet owns alone is worth around €50,000.
Amazingly there are some familiar names on the list including:
- Head of the National Bank – Svein Gjedrem
- Former Prime minister of Sweden – Ingvar Carlsson
- Former Minister of Interrogation – Jens Orbäck
- Former Swedish skier – Anja Pärson
- Close family members of former Sweden and Nigeria coach Lars Lagerbäck
Jens Orbäck said
“I don’t like this at all. As a former minister this is also a security issue.”
He has urged FIFA to address the issue as soon as possible as peoples identity’s are in a vulnerable position.
Tommy Theorin, Secretary General of the Swedish Top Football Association, is in agreement with Orbäck.
“I’m frightened. I’m glad I’ve changed my passport since 2006 — I did definitely not expect FIFA to have so little control. This kind of information has to be treated confidentially.” he said.
The majority of names mentioned are only from lists which figured the Swedish national team. A host of people from the list are from other countries across Europe including Portugal, Italy and France.
It is a serious breach of FIFA’s regulations as a member of their team has severely jeopardised the trust which is beheld between the governing body, the staff and the fans.
We await FIFA’s response.
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