Revelations that tickets for the London Games found their way on to the black market are all too predictable and shame the IOC.Of all the negative stories , from transport meltdowns to security scares.likely to afflict the London Olympics before the curtain goes up on Danny Boyle's opening ceremony, Sunday's was the most predictable. And yet it is also potentially among the most damaging.
Claims that 27 representatives of 54 countries – more than a quarter of the total number whose athletes will march around the track in Stratford in the name of Olympic values – were prepared to break International Olympic Committee rules and sell thousands of tickets on the black market will not come as a big surprise to many. Certainly not to anyone who has observed the margins of major sporting events since the 1984 Los Angeles Games set the template for the modern era.
Yet the numbers involved still shock – up to £6,000 demanded for "AA" blue riband tickets sloshing around in a global market for an event staged in venues built with billions of pounds of public money.
For the IOC, which had spent much of the past decade ridding itself of the stain of the Salt Lake City scandal, and for London 2012 organisers, battling public cynicism about ticketing, cronyism and corporate might, it could not have come at a worse time.
In an idyllic lakeside corner of Lausanne, the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, could afford a degree of quiet satisfaction as he sat opposite me last week and reflected on the upcoming London Games. There was no last-minute panic to finish the venues, no international outcry over human rights.
Rogge, who will stand down next year after 12 years in the IOC's top job, had hoped to leave behind an organisation in rude financial health and with a restored reputation for probity and transparency.
As fires raged at Fifa, the IOC was last year able to bask in the fact that in comparison it looked like a model international governing body. The calm hand on the tiller of the Belgian former Olympic sailor, elected in 2001 in the wake of the Salt Lake City bribery scandal that threatened to fatally undermine its image, had made it appear a beacon of good practice next to Sepp Blatter's collapsing Fifa House.
The speed with which the IOC reacted to the Sunday Times allegations reflects the extent to which they threaten to sully that good name. The claims may only involve "thousands" of tickets among 8.8m but, as ever, perception is everything.
At a general assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees in Acapulco in October 2010, the Locog chairman, Lord Coe, acknowledged the threat when he told the gathering that tough action would be taken against anyone who broke the rules regarding distribution of the 1.1m tickets reserved for overseas buyers and gently reminded them of the enquiring nature of the British media.
Yet those rules are notoriously difficult to enforce and widespread suspicions remained, only exacerbated by the recent resignation of the general secretary of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee when he was caught by a similar BBC sting.
The IOC was keen in its hastily released statement to underline that the NOCs involved were "autonomous". The same goes for the international federations of Olympic sports that from time to time are similarly involved in scandal.
And London organisers can justifiably point to having done more to combat touting than any previous Games – including specific warnings to overseas Olympic committees and an effort to limit tickets based on how they are likely to sell and performance pedigree. They also stressed that none of the tickets involved were among the 6.6m allocated to the British public.
However, those distinctions mean little to the general public. Many of those who have struggled to secure tickets for the biggest events and already feel ill disposed towards what they see as preferential treatment for sponsors and blazers will see this as yet more evidence for the prosecution.
The timing is less than ideal for London organisers, just as they were hoping to capitalise on the groundswell of goodwill created across the country by the torch relay and the looming excitement of the sporting spectacle. They hoped that growing buzz would translate into an acceleration in sales for almost 2m remaining tickets for football and high-priced options for less popular sports and drown out complaints over sponsors, Games lanes and selection controversies.
There will be lessons to be learned – above and beyond a reminder to those on the take that they might learn to avoid tempting offers from those claiming to represent middle eastern money men. The way the IOC allocates and distributes tickets must surely change. One of the strengths of the IOC's structure is that the executive is not beholden to national associations in the same way as Fifa's is.
A centralised ticketing system that bequeaths less power to national fiefdoms may be one option. However it is done, market forces mean it will never be possible to eradicate the black market entirely – but it should be possible to ensure it's not fuelled by those inside the tent.
In the meantime, the immediate reaction of the IOC and Locog to this latest controversy will do much to inform the ongoing battle for the hearts and minds of the public attitude to the Olympic Games – in London, in the UK and beyond.
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