Here to officially open the Prestige Pavilion which will provide corporate hospitality during the Games, Coe (pictured above, second right) commented on those who might be found guilty following the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) investigation into allegations made by the Sunday Times newspaper that representatives for 54 countries had been prepared to breach ticket sale rules.

"I think it would be very difficult to sustain an argument that they would be a place in the Olympic Movement for them," he said.

Coe said he was "depressed" by the allegations.

"I think 'dismayed' would be too soft a response and 'philosophical' would certainly be too soft a response," he said.

"I'm depressed, given the number of warnings we have given.

"Apart from being depressed about the allegations that have been made I am mildly surprised that someone was willing to take a punt on this given how many safeguards we have out there."

But Coe insisted he did not wish retrospectively that the allocation of tickets to foreign nations had been more conservative.


"There were 11 million tickets, eight million are in the hands of the British public, that's [almost] 75 per cent, and we are delivering a Games, arguably the most popular Games ever, to 204 National Olympic Committees, that is to help people like my parents that went to the Los Angeles 1984 Games as part of that system," he explained.

"That is not a disproportionate number of tickets going into the international marketplace for a Games as popular as the Games are proving to be in London.

"I don't think this is a defining moment.

"It's a moment to take very, very seriously and it's one that I know from my conversations this morning with the International Olympic Committee that they are taking extremely seriously.

"There is a great deal of anger in Lausanne about the nature of these allegations.

"They are now looking in detail at them.

"I think you have to be realistic and think that with 39 days to go before the Games we are unlikely to get the full pathology.

"They are absolutely intent on treating it very seriously.

"We have made the very obvious offer that within their investigation we will help in any way we possibly can."

Responding to the point that not a lot of tickets were involved, Coe said: "That's not the point.

"Fair play is not a concept rooted only in the stadium.

"There has to be confidence in every aspect of the delivery of the Games.

"There has to be confidence that there are legitimate processes."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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