A €410,000 loan to ex-Irish Olympic chief Pat Hickey to allow him to leave Brazil may be “written off”.

The Association of National Olympic Committees approved lending the cash to their former vice-president, 73, on “humanitarian grounds” in December 2016 while he was on bail in Rio de Janeiro.

1 Ex-Irish Olympic chief Pat Hickey Credit: Sportsfile

The Dubliner remains under investigation for alleged ticket touting at the city’s Olympics and has protested his innocence of all charges.

At the time, the association described it as a “temporary loan”, saying its terms “make it clear that it must be repaid to ANOC in full.”

However, at its annual general meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, ANOC admitted it may never receive its money back. Alfred Emmanuel from St Lucian Olympic Committee raised the issue of the loan, saying there was a lack of clarity about it.

He said: “When this issue arose last year I specifically asked executive members whether they were party to such an agreement and transaction and they said they had absolutely no idea.

“Today they are identified as having been party to such an agreement.

“What is the status as it relates to this current loan?

“Has an effort been made to recoup all or some of it at this current time?”

A representative from ANOC’s auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers insisted there was no financial risk to the organisation.

It is understood this is because the money was paid from an insurance policy covering top members, who used to include Hickey.

The auditor added: “The Executive Council will consider at a certain point whether the loan should simply be written off.”

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Emmanuel told the Irish Sun he “has difficulty with the term loan”.

He said: “It cannot be fair to provide ANOC’s financial resources to anyone to assist with what I consider a personal matter.”

Emmanuel added that he hopes ANOC will work to prevent instances “where it is called upon to provide the organisation’s funds to assist people” having personal issues.