Affiliates put World Cup ticket sales uncertainty to rest

The majority of the 48 affiliates at last Saturday’s Annual General Meeting of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation want no further investigation of the sale of the World Cup tickets last year.{{more}}

When a vote was taken for further findings, possibly a forensic audit to be done on the issue, there were more nays of affiliates, who wanted the matter to be laid to rest.

This was one of the sticky issues, as the affiliates debated the Auditors’ report during the meeting.

Kirk Da Silva, representing the audit firm of KDLT, reiterated that sufficient documentation was not provided by his client – the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF) – as to the sale of the tickets.

The hard copy of the audit report of the SVGFF for 2014, which was distributed at last Saturday, noted: “As a result of internal control deficiencies, we were unable to satisfy ourselves as to the sales of FIFA World Cup tickets reflected in Note 3 in the amount of $241,623. We were therefore unable to determine whether any adjustments might be necessary to the statement of comprehensive income and fund balance as of December 31, 2014 and cash flows for the year then ended.”

Additionally, the audit noted, “In the year under review, we were unable to determine and to verify sales of FIFA World Cup tickets in the sum of $241,623, as reflected in Note 15 to the Financial Statements, and as a result, we were also unable to verify profit of $118,273 on sale of these tickets.”

Records show that Raymond Trimmingham, acting on behalf of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation signed on June 8, 2014, to have received 200 tickets.

However, at last Saturday’s meeting, president of the SVGFF Venold Coombs, while holding some documents in his hand, said “Members, this is from FIFA, 184 tickets, US$42,075; the amount came, the equivalent EC dollars upon value.”

The matter of the sale of World Cup tickets had come to light as recently as last September, when FIFA’s general secretary Jerome Valcke was sent on leave pending investigation into his involvement in selling tickets above the face value and sharing in the profits.