Malta Olympic Committee general secretary Joe Cassar insisted again today he was not involved in any illegal resale of tickets for the Olympic Games.

The Sunday Times of London carried out an undercover investigation recently into the alleged illegal resale of tickets for the Games on the international market.

In a statement written through his lawyers, Mr Cassar gave an overview of the events in a bid to clear his name.

The journalists had introduced themselves via email as 'representatives of a major investor in the ticketing and hospitality trade" who was offering a lucrative deal which seemed very advantageous to the MOC.

Mr Cassar said that he immediately informed the "representatives" that the MOC did not have any tickets relating to the Olympics and referred them to the official authorised ticket reseller (ATR) for Malta for the said games

He accepted to help the representatives by passing on any specific requests to other ATRs so as to try and obtain the required tickets, without infringing rules.

The "representatives" informed the MOC that they were ready to pay £60,000 to act as the official ATR for the Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi.

The MOC had already received offers of smaller amounts and, therefore, the offer in question was interesting.

To act as ATR would mean entering into various complex agreements. Since Mr Cassar did not have the relative experience in the formalities and rules involved, and as the "representatives" themselves did not seem to have much know-how in this area, he suggested they contact some advisors/experts to help them with the matter.

When asked what mark-ups that an ATR may be entitled to when selling the tickets, Mr Cassar said he thought that there would be a threshold of 20% and that one could not just decide on a mark-up.

This was actually provided for in the relative official conditions that mark ups could not exceed 20 per cent.

When asked whether the prices of the ATRs were checked upon, he replied that if the prices were specifically advertised then they would be checkable whereas to his knowledge there would also be the possibility of package deals where the specific price ticket would be incorporated in the whole package.

It was, therefore, quite clear that Mr Cassar was not in any way trying to sell tickets to the "representatives" and was not informing them of ways to camouflage higher prices

Mr Cassar said that when he used the words"subtle marketing" he was referring to marketing techniques the ATR could use to sell tickets without infringing the rules and regulations of the IOC. In fact, an ATR may establish a website for the purpose of online ticket sales (which would also need to be in conformity with IOC rules and regulations in connection with online sales).

He was also referring to the sale of tickets within the EU. In no way was he referring to or suggesting anything irregular.

In an e-mail, Mr Cassar had also asked who the ultimate investor was for a check to be carried out on him and his company. This showed that his intentions were always lawful and in no way did he want to by-pass rules.

He said he had total confidence in the International Olympic Committee that was carrying out its verifications into the allegations made and shall await the outcome and conclusions of these verifications and shall not be discussing the matter any further.

He reserved the right to proceed against any sectors of the national and international press who attempted to distort the facts in this matter.