But the NOCs often hold back significant swathes of tickets for their own use, to sell to sponsors, provide to athletes families or, in some cases, to earn some cash under the table by selling on to others at highly inflated prices.
They are able to do this because the numbers of tickets made available to each national Olympic committee is never made public. In the past some authorised ticket resellers who have the rights to sell tickets in multiple countries have boasted of being able to surreptitiously swap tickets between countries. So countries with a strong interest in one sport can get tickets allocated to another country.
Only last month did Volodymyr Gerashchenko, the 66-year-old general secretary of Ukraine National Olympic Committee, step down after he was secretly filmed by a BBC investigation team offering to sell up to one hundred tickets worth thousands of pounds for events at the Games.
Locog chief executive Paul Deighton has also been strict about the clear lines of demarcation between authorised ticket sellers who are also official hospitality providers. Technically pools of tickets for one particular client group shouldn't be mixed with tickets for a different group. Nor should hotels or extras be added to ticket sales to artificially inflate prices.
But the wheeling and dealing of tickets around the globe occurs under the cloak of commercial confidentiality. Both Locog and the IOC refuse to release details as to how many tickets each national Olympic committee receives.
Nor do they release how many tickets the hospitality providers have purchased. If they did, buyers in each country would have a fairer idea of the ticket process. The method of calculating each country's allocation would also be scrutinised. But as we have seen with the refusal of Locog to even reveal how many tickets have been available at each session to the UK public, transparency and accountability are not high on the list of priorities.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
London Olympics: Leander Paes ready to go by selectors' choice - indiatoday.intoday.in
Leander Paes on Saturday said that he is ready to partner whosoever is chosen by the selectors as "Olympics is my greatest honour." Breaking his silence after Mahesh Bhupathi accused him of "backstabbing," Paes said who he partners at the London Games was not the most important issue for him.
The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has stuck to its decision to pair the two veterans while the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has asked for a report in the matter.
"Winning a medal at the Atlanta Olympics is the most cherished memory I have in my tennis career. To play for our flag, and represent India for the sixth time at the Olympics, is my greatest honour. I will, as I always have in the past, put my best foot forward," said Paes.
Paes, India's top doubles player ranked seventh in the world, refused to react to Mahesh Bhupathi's stinging statements. "I have no reaction to the recent statements made by Mahesh Bhupathi to the media.
I have always maintained that I will play with whoever the selection committee and AITA choose and this continues to be my stand," Paes said.
The 38-year-old player, who had the right to state his preference of partner for the Games, made it clear that he wanted to play with Rohan Bopanna, but said he would not mind combining with his estranged partner Bhupathi. "When asked by the AITA, I expressed my preference to play with Rohan Bopanna as my partner in the Olympics 2012, based on his physical fitness and big serve."
The issue of India's tennis entry for the London Olympics snowballed into a row after AITA chose Paes and Bhupathi as India's sole representatives in men's doubles.
Bhupathi, who paired up with Bopanna in January with the London Olympics in mind, has maintained that he will not partner Paes as he and Bopanna have qualified as a pair.
"It does not help to shoot one's mouth off like this," Rohit Rajpal, one of the selectors told Mail Today, on the outburst by Bhupathi and Bopanna. "They should have shown a bit more maturity, discuss things and think about the country. People do come together to rise to the occasion. We thought about all options before taking this decision. As of now, we do not know how it will unfold. We hope things calm down and they will think a little bit."
Asked about their options if Bhupathi refuses to change his stance, Rajpal said "We can then ask Bopanna to partner Leander.
AITA chief Anil Khanna said that the federation will stand by its decision. "If Bhupathi expects AITA would buckle under pressure and refuses to pair up with Paes, he should know that it will not happen," he said.
"It will have to be Leander and Mahesh. Olympics is a different ball game and tougher than a Grand Slam and wealth of experience that the duo has would keep them in good stead in crunch and pressure situation".
Meanwhile, IOA supremo VK Malhotra has asked for a report on the issue. "Tennis is one of the sports which can fetch us a medal in the Olympics," Malhotra told Mail Today. "I have asked Anil Khanna for a report which he has promised to give in a day or two. We will have to look at all the possibilities like whether we can send one team or two."
Source: indiatoday.intoday.in
London 2012: Tasha Danvers gives up dream of competing at Olympics - The Guardian
Britain's Tasha Danvers, the bronze medallist in the 400m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics, has retired after conceding defeat in her battle to be fit for the London 2012 Games. The 34-year-old has suffered a series of injuries and ahead of the preliminary squad announcement for the Games this week Danvers, from south London, has quit.
"It's extremely disappointing not to be able to put myself into contention for selection for London 2012," she said. "Based on my training at different stages my coach and I believed we had a genuine chance of making it. But the setbacks have been too many to overcome.
"Since winning Olympic bronze in Beijing I have made so many sacrifices to fulfil my dream of competing in London. Making the decision to relocate back to the UK meant leaving my seven-year-old son behind in America, which is the hardest thing in the world to do. But we genuinely believed I could step on to that podium again and with the support of my family, [coach] Malcolm Arnold, UKA, the medical team and the National Lottery, I've done everything possible to try to achieve that. Sadly my body has had enough."
Danvers, who also won Commonwealth Games silver in 2006 – less than 18 months after giving birth to her son – has made every final she has contested since 2004.
Arnold said: "This is the worse possible news for Tasha but there is no doubt she has thrown everything at trying to make London. She is an Olympic medallist and that pedigree doesn't just disappear. I was confident that if we could get her to the Games she would have been very competitive.
"This is the flipside of the Olympic dream but career-ending injuries are a fact of life at this level of sport. Our medical team have worked incredibly hard but sometimes the body knows best."
Great Britain's head coach Charles van Commenee added: "We don't have too many current Olympic medallists in our team and in an ideal world they would all be with us in London. Tasha knows what it takes to be competitive and make the podium, which would have been a huge advantage. Retirement is a hard decision for any athlete but when the decision is taken out of your hands so close to an Olympic Games, it must be even tougher. I wish Tasha all the very best."
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
Ruud Gullit's wife leaves him for a younger man after getting 'sick of his cheating' - Daily Mail
By Leon Watson
|
The wife of football legend Ruud Gullit has left him for a younger man because she says she's sick of his cheating.
Estelle, 33, revealed the Sky Sports pundit was left 'angry and confused' after she told him she wanted a divorce.
Estelle has fallen in love with Moroccan-born world champion kickboxer Badr Hari, who at 28 is 21 years younger than Ruud.
Split: Former Holland star Ruud Gullit with his bride Estelle Cruyff on their wedding day in Amsterdam. She has now told him she wants a divorce
In an interview with Dutch paper De Telegraaf, she blamed her husband's infidelity for the end of their 12-year marriage.
Estelle, who is niece of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, said: 'There is one thing Ruud needs to know. Badr has not stolen me from Ruud... Ruud gave me away.'
'Ruud is angry and confused,' she revealed. 'He can’t believe what is happening. He was really angry when I told him I was leaving him.
'I wanted us both to tell the children. We have a daughter Joelle and a son Maxim together. But I did not get the chance to discuss that.
'Ruud is so annoyed. He really did not see this coming. But that is what happens when you are so busy with your own things.'
Ruud played for AC Milan, Sampdoria, Chelsea and Holland in a glittering career before going on to manage Chelsea and Newcastle United.
Ruud Gullit, when he was manager of Chelsea, and his then-girlfriend, Estelle Cruyff at Fulham Town Hall in London, celebrating the club's 1997 FA Cup win over Middlesborough
Glamorous: Estelle Cruyff became the third Mrs Ruud Gullit when the couple married in Amsterdam. Ruud astounded guests by arriving with his trademark dreadlocks shorn off
Unfaithful: The couple attend the Golden Foot Ceremony Awards in Monaco in October last year
Estelle said she has fallen in love with Moroccan-born world heavyweight kickboxing champion Badr Hari (pictured right), who is 21 years younger than her husband
His wife said: 'Of course Ruud had affairs. He always did during our marriage. And of course I knew about them. And of course he would deny them all the time. My trust in him decreased over the years. In the end I didn’t trust him one bit.
'That was the moment I started to ask myself, what is this whole marriage actually based on?
'I put on a brave smile for a long time when I was with friends. It was a smile to hide my disappointment and hurt. As a woman you feel so much more than a man. I just knew his things weren’t incidents, but pure lust. The first time I confronted him with one of his affairs, we weren’t even married.'
Talented footballer: Ruud Gullit is tackled by Tottenham's Allan Nielsen in a match at Stamford Bridge in 1996
Ruud, with Dennis Wise and Gianfranco Zola after winning the FA Cup in 1997
Ruud announced his resignation as Newcastle United manager in August 1999, he blamed the media and a disastrous start to the Premiership season
Estelle met Ruud at a nightclub while she was aged 17 and still at school. The couple married four years later and have two children together.
She gave birth to their two-year-old daughter, Joelle, when she was 19 and the family lived in a flat on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
'Ruud does not realise that he has hurt me so much over the years,' she said. 'I wonder now if he was aware of how much pain he caused me.
'I wanted that pain to end,' she told De Telegraaf. 'I hope he finds somebody who can make him happy. It has become clear over the years that I could not make him happy. Well, not just me on my own.
'Ruud knows I know everything. He really is not a bad man, but he has one particularly bad habit.
'I was looking forward to a lovely, romantic life with Ruud. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. He was sweet, happy. I could not wait to start a family with him. I don’t want to forget the great moments, which we did have, otherwise this would not have lasted 16 years.'
Estelle said Ruud is 'an adorable father' which 'as a woman, that makes you melt at times'.
But she said being a good father is not enough. The former European Footballer of the Year was married twice before and has four children with his ex-wives.
Ruud told Dutch media this week that he was getting divorced, 'because of recent developments in his marriage'.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
She is well rid he is UGLY
- Old England is dying, London, 17/6/2012 15:05
Report abuse