The front-page splash in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper did not concern Neymar or his replacement, Willian, or even Brazil’s chances against Germany in their World Cup semi-final. Instead the headline concentrated on Operation Jules Rimet, an ongoing investigation by Rio police that has the power to strike at the heart of Fifa’s power structures.

Just as the World Cup began under the shadow of an avalanche of claims of Fifa corruption, so it may end with the focus being not on the football but on the deals that take place in the shadows of the luxury hotels block booked by the world governing body for the cup’s duration.

The determined undercover investigation, which involved 50,000 tapped phone calls, had already last week led to 11 arrests, but on Monday night it claimed its most eye-catching scalp.

Ray Whelan, a longstanding senior executive for the Match group of companies that has the exclusive contract to provide Fifa’s hospitality packages until 2023, spent the night not in his suite at the Copacabana Palace Hotel but in a prison cell. His current position is head of Match Services, one of the related group of companies responsible for accommodation.

Whelan is a former agent to Sir Bobby Charlton who works out of the company’s base in Manchester. It also has offices in Zurich, close to Fifa House, and Rio. Managed from Cheadle by the Mexican brothers Jaime and Enrique Byrom, the Match group of companies has won a series of Fifa contracts to run ticketing, travel, accommodation and technology services at the World Cup since 1994.

Eyebrows were raised when Match was awarded the exclusive rights to hospitality and accommodation for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups but Fifa insisted it was an open tender. In 2011 Fifa announced that Match would continue as its exclusive contractor until 2023 in a deal said to be worth at least $300m.

The brothers initially worked at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico as independent operators and won their first Fifa contract at the 1994 World Cup in the US. In the subsequent two decades they have become entwined with Fifa.

The potential for embarrassment is huge. First, Sepp Blatter’s nephew, Philippe Blatter, is chief executive of one of Match Hospitality’s minority shareholders – Infront Sports and Media. Secondly, at a World Cup where entry to the stadiums has been largely restricted to rich, mostly white, Brazilians, the arrests shine a light on the huge sums involved in the hospitality operation.

Even more worrying for Blatter is the prospect that the determined Rio police investigation could blow open the way in which tickets and hospitality packages have become the grease that oils Fifa’s wheels. Scandals have echoed down the years. Occasionally, as with the former Concacaf president Jack Warner, they have burst into the spotlight. More often they have stayed within the walls of hotel lobbies and opulent suites.

The luxury Copacabana Palace has become the heart of Fifa’s operations at this World Cup. Only those with the right accreditation are allowed beyond the security barrier. Occasionally Blatter or another member of the executive committee will sweep through the security cordon in a chauffeur-driven car.

The last thing those inside expected was a police investigation that would tap 50,000 calls to try to get to the bottom of the illegal trade in World Cup tickets.

Whelan was characterised by the police investigator Fabio Barucke as being the “facilitator” who allowed a large ring of scalpers to have access to tickets. In a statement police said Whelan was heard on wiretapped phone calls negotiating ticket prices with an Algerian national, Mohamadou Lamine Fofana, who was among 11 people arrested last week.

Fofana is believed to have been a familiar figure in and around Fifa circles going back to the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Whelan was arrested inside his luxury suite on Monday afternoon, where police said they confiscated tickets for upcoming matches, along with Whelan’s computer, mobile phone and various unspecified documents.

Police last week arrested 11 people, including Fofana, and seized 131 tickets – at least 70 of them for corporate hospitality. Police said then that Fofana had connections to Fifa or Match and the original source of the tickets to be sold at hugely inflated prices was “someone higher up”.

Match has the packages for a string of big companies whose names appeared on some of the seized tickets: the Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries, the hospitality provider Jet Set, the Nigerian sports marketing agency Pamodzi and the company operated by Fofana.

Match said in a statement on Tuesday that Whelan had been released on bail and it had “complete faith that the facts will establish that he has not violated any laws.”

“Match will continue to fully support all police investigations, which we firmly believe will fully exonerate Ray,” it added, saying he would continue to work for the company on his “areas of operational responsibility”.

Fifa maintained that Whelan had no responsibility for ticketing or hospitality and worked for its accommodation arm. It also sought to clarify that Philippe Blatter had no operational responsibility for any Fifa contract. “We fully co-operate and we are working with the local authorities,” said a spokeswoman. “Local authorities will take action in line with the law. We will have to see what the authorities do.”

Fifa and Match attempted to clamp down on touting before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in order to weed out unofficial operators who might be undercutting the official supplier. Fifa continues to say it will assist police in their inquiries. It remains to be seen just where they will lead.