Ticket touts disgrace: Row upon row of empty seats… as tickets sent to foreign VIPs go on the black market
- Large areas of empty seats seen in stadium for the second day running
- London 2012 chairman Lord Coe reveals students and teachers are also being called in at the last minute
- Every tout arrested had tickets sent to foreign VIPS
- Organizers Locog have begun an investigation into the ticketing fiasco
Prized Olympic tickets entrusted to foreign delegations are being openly sold by touts on the streets of Britain, it emerged last night.
They are cashing in on the huge demand for seats by selling tickets sent overseas by Games organizers.
The revelation came as a row raged over embarrassing scenes of banks of empty seating at many Games venues – including last night’s swimming finals.
Last night Scotland Yard said every illegal seller arrested so far had held tickets dispatched overseas to national committees and official re-sellers.
One of the touts held is from Germany, another from Slovakia.
The discovery raises further questions about the way in which precious tickets are allocated by the International Olympic Committee.
And it will fuel anger among millions of British sport fans who have been left watching events on TV because they failed to get a seat in last year’s ballot.
Last night, as an official probe was launched into the scandal:
Shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said those not using their seats should be stripped of them.- Olympics boss Lord Coe claimed venues were ‘stuffed to the gunwales’ and dismissed pictures of the seats as ‘holiday snaps’.
- Organisers insisted the empty seats were not allocated to sponsors, claiming they were unused by athletes, officials and the media.
- Troops, students and teachers are being drafted in to sit in the empty seats to prevent a repeat of the embarrassing scenes.
Olympic GYMNAST FAILS DRUGS TEST
A Gymnast from Uzbekistan has become the first athlete to fail a drugs test during the 2012 Olympics.
Luiza Galiulina, 20, right, was provisionally suspended from competing after a urine sample provided on Wednesday tested positive for furosemide, a diuretic that can be used as a masking agent or for weight loss.
She will now have a second test.
The 4ft 9in athlete, the only gymnast competing for Uzbekistan, would have taken part in the women’s qualifiers yesterday.
But a prickly Lord Coe insisted the ticketing process had worked.
He even dismissed pictures of empty seats as ‘holiday snaps’ before admitting troops and students could be used to fill gaps.
‘We take it seriously,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to see swathes of those seats empty and that’s why we will make sure, where we can, people are in those seats when they are not used.’
The London 2012 chairman added: ‘Let’s put this in perspective. Those venues are stuffed to the gunwales. The public are in there.’
Initially, the empty spaces were blamed on ‘no-shows’ from blocks given to sponsors but yesterday the finger was pointed at the athletes, media and sports federations, who cannot be bothered to use their entitlement to a seat at the venue.
Designer Paul Chandler, 42, who travelled down to the Olympic Park from Nottingham with his family, added: ‘Standing in the wet watching pictures of empty seats on the big screen, we feel betrayed.’
Sally Pookey, 31, who lives less than a mile from the Olympic Park, said: ‘I felt disgusted when I saw all the gaps in the stands.’
Last night, Team GB cyclist Geraint Thomas said: ‘It’s quite sad, seeing all the empty seats.’
Lord Coe revealed yesterday how troops, students and teachers were being drafted in to help end the embarrassing spectacle of empty seats at Olympic venues.
The Locog chairman said fans with tickets could have them upgraded so they can sit in more expensive areas reserved for VIP members of the ‘Olympic family’.
He added that tickets for sports held in double sessions, such as hockey, basketball, water polo and handball, were being recycled and re-sold as people leave.
