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Greek Olympic Committee President Allegedly Involved in London 2012 Tickets Scandal

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to conduct a thorough investigation into the case of Olympic officials selling thousands of tickets to the London Olympics 2012 events on the black market. According to the UK newspaper Sunday Times, officials in more than 50 countries are involved in the tickets scandal, where tickets to popular events were sold ten times higher than their original prices.

According to an extensive AP report, Sunday Times’ allegations were also targeting Spyros Capralos, the Greek Olympic Committee president and top organizer of the 2004 Athens Olympics. The British paper supported that Capralos was caught on camera boasting he had “pulled strings” with London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe to obtain premium tickets for official agents in Greece.

Both the Greek official and the London Organizing Committee denied all accusations.

The ticket scandal broke out several months ago, and the IOC said, in a recent official statement, that it would shed light on the case.

“IOC rules forbid national committees from selling tickets abroad, inflating ticket prices or selling tickets to unauthorized resellers. But the Sunday Times said its undercover reporters, who posed as illegal ticket sellers acting for clients in the Middle East, caught officials red-handed,” read the AP report.

The Sunday Times have already filed to IOC the evidence from their two-month long investigation on the 27 implicated officials.

The Olympic Committee of each country can allocate a certain number of tickets within its domestic market. It is not allowed to resell them or sell them abroad. The scandal came to light after a member of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee resigned over his involvement in selling Olympic tickets on the black market.

The Greek Committee maintained, on the other hand, that Capralos met with the Sunday Times reporters not to discuss the London Olympics but rather the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and that the president of the Committee informed the reporters on the official procedure to be followed when purchasing tickets.

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