Olympic Officials 'Linked To Ticket Corruption'

Foreign Olympic officials and agents have been caught trying to sell thousands of London 2012 tickets on the black market for up to 10 times their value, it has been claimed.

The Sunday Times accuses the foreign officials and agents of siphoning off tickets from official supplies held by overseas National Olympic Committees (Nocs) to sell at exorbitant prices.

The Sunday title claims it uncovered 27 agents willing to sell tickets on the black market, including Serbia's official ticket agent, who offered to sell around 1,500 tickets to events for £80,000.

Yoav Bruck, the former Olympic swimmer who is authorised to sell tickets in Israel and Cyprus, is also accused of offering to sell reporters 525 top seats for £66,000.

While the report says Lithuania's official agent, Asta Zirlyte, boasted she had withheld tickets from her own country so they could be sold on the black market.

"If I take a risk and they catch me, that means your tickets will be cancelled. So you have to understand the risk," she allegedly said.

The chairman of the London Organising Committee (Locog), Lord Coe, had promised to deliver a watertight ticketing strategy for the Games.

But a record 1.2 million tickets were released to overseas Olympic committees, who bid for their share of the ticket allocation based on demand in their countries.

This system resulted in officials exaggerating local demand so they could get the maximum number of tickets, the newspaper claims, despite them being forbidden to sell their tickets abroad or to anyone who plans to resell them.

So the corruption of the Olympic Games has already begun. I guess scalping is a global business now and deep into the black market. Can't we just get together and have some friendly competition and some good times without the thieves jumping in and making harder for the rest of us? I find this sickening. The greed in this World just astounds me.

Anyway, here's the link......... www.three.fm...

Edit to add: Sorry, I forgot to mention in my post there is a video with the article.

Originally posted by Agarta
...Can't we just get together and have some friendly competition and some good times without the thieves jumping in and making harder for the rest of us?

I'm guessing... NO!

What I find both surprising and disappointing in this whole thing is this: In today's world, can anyone really be so naive and stupid and greedy that they somehow think that no one's watching--that they somehow will NOT get caught? 7-year-olds are barely that stupid these days.

We all know that the Olympics is not just a simple, wholesome undertaking anymore--if it ever was. It's polluted enough with all the politics and nationalism and commercialism. But that wasn't bad enough--now we have to add the element of unbridled avarice by its very officials?

reply to post by Ex_CT2

*APPLAUSE*
Very well said, I wish I could Flag that post. I guess a star and a compliment is the best I can do.

reply to post by Agarta


Thanks. Forgot to S&F first time through. Fixed now.

reply to post by Agarta


Who gives a crap?

Honestly.

Do you even know how they handle local businesses wherever the Olympics are held?

reply to post by InfoKartel


As a matter of fact I do from personal experience.
Thanks for replying.

Originally posted by Agarta
reply to post by InfoKartel

 

As a matter of fact I do from personal experience.
Thanks for replying.

That's what I'm saying. They screw over the local businesses. Who cares if people that visit the event are screwed over through their tickets? They're wealthy enough to buy the ticket and eat and drink at all those corporate venues. In fact, they should price the tickets at a million a piece to show exactly what the Olympics are. Do you know how much spying is done at an event like the Olympics? Journalists from most countries are paid to keep an eye on "important people" - that's journalistic integrity through the window alongside with any kind of business ethics. So forgive my words if they seem harsh towards people who are dumb enough to buy into the event without typing a few words into google and seeing how much tickets are.

Just saw it now on sky sports, looks like it very wide spread but I am in no way shocked, this was always going to happen. Tickets that was made for the home nation, that had to put up with all the work going into the olympics such as road works and cuts, then being sold on the black market to some billionaires tycoon's from the middle east.

Effects of the olympics

The Olympics is all about graft, from it's very inception through the building contracts and, of course, copyright, branding and marketing. It's a huge money maker for those with a foot in the door, and the actual sport is secondary.
I wonder what the final cost will be for this fiasco in excess and fraud? Certainly not the £4Billion they said at the outset as that figure was doubled and then tripled before anyone has even set foot in the stadium and hopped, skipped or jumped into the sandpit.

wrong effing thread