Italian scalper sent home amid ticket scandal

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Sydney: Australia deported an Italian scalper amid a scandal over how tickets issued to National Olympic Committees, including Switzerland and the United States, ended up on the black market. Organisers of the Games said one Italian scalper had been expelled on Thursday and a second Italian soon would be kicked out.

The International Olympic Committee said it was investigating how tickets issued to National Olympic Committees were being sold illegally. Past Olympics have been plagued by national committees offloading their ticket allotments to scalpers. The illegal practice robs host cities of revenues.

IOC Director General Francois Carrard said an investigation was under way to find out whether tickets on the black market had come straight from Olympic committees or had leaked through after being handed out to sponsors, coaches, friends and others.

"There is an issue of some NOCs being involved," Carrard said. But he added, "The chain of responsibility is not as easy to trace as one might think."

"We're investigating this situation," he said.

Asked whether sanctions would be applied to committees found guilty of corrupt practices, he said, "It's premature. We have to investigate, we have to know the facts."

Ticket demand heats up

Liz Smylie, a spokeswoman for the Sydney Games Organising Committee gave no details about the two Italians, saying only they were travelling on tourist visas.

Earlier, the IOC's chief coordinator of the Games, Jacques Rogge, indicated there had been other expulsions.

"Some have been sent home, deported. When you enter the country on a tourist visa you are not allowed to engage in commercial activity," he said.

Ticket touting is illegal in New South Wales at key sporting venues, including the stadiums being used for the Games. Organisers have been trying to crack down on the organised scalpers who have set up shop in the main Olympic Park, a sprawling complex that is home to the main stadium and other venues where 14 of 28 Olympic sports are being contested.

Ticket scalpers have had thin pickings so far, but with track and field events starting on Friday demand is heating up. Prized tickets for the closing ceremony are expected to fetch high prices on the black market.

In previous Games, the IOC has turned a blind eye to Olympic committees from some Third World countries who have sold discounted tickets to scalpers to help fund their sports programmes.

But suggestions that committees from rich nations may have abused the system has sparked outrage in Australia.



(c) Reuters Limited.