Olympics: Ioc Plans Crackdown on Touts

The International Olympic Committee is to launch an investigation into suspicions that National Olympic Committee officials have been corruptly selling tickets. The Games' organizers, Bocog, said all 6.8m tickets had been sold but empty seats across all the venues have exposed a ticketing disaster to the IOC. In a crackdown on scalpers the Chinese authorities have arrested touts and confiscated tickets.

Bocog's secretary-general, Wang Wei, appeared to be hinting that the fault for the touting epidemic lies with the NOCs. In response to a question on scalping, Wang revealed that applications for tickets from the world's NOCs had risen 60% against Athens levels.

The IOC will attempt to uncover how the tickets fell into the hands of the touts. "We were given a breakdown of the tickets sold to the general public and the NOCs," said an IOC spokeswoman.

Although the IOC says "clear breaches" will "be taken seriously", establishing evidence is the harder part as there is no fail-safe means through which to discover where the tickets came from. That should change for London 2012 where organizers intend to involve the security services to combat ticket scalping.

Protest parks a 'sham'

Finally, a week after Bocog's head of security promised to provide the statistics within 24 hours, the Chinese authorities have released details of the number of applications to attend the protest parks. So contentious had China's secrecy become that every day the question was asked of both Bocog and the IOC. But instead of them fronting up to the world's media, the news that 77 applications had been received from 149 would-be demonstrators was slipped out quietly through the official state news agency, Xinhua. After 74 were withdrawn following "amicable settlements" only one protest permit has been granted. The sham "protest zones" did not help the London Development Agency's £3m-plus budget for Beijing. The LDA was ordered to move its London House showcase building from the scheduled Ritan Park site for the protesters who were never allowed to show. The LDA was forced to relocate to the more expensive Shichahai lakeside area.

Nike puts the boot in

Nike might not entirely have thought through its objections to what was simply an internet rumor when it asked the oppressive Chinese government to investigate the origins of false whispers that it ordered Liu Xiang, right, to pull out of the 110m hurdles on Monday. "The posting is a malicious rumor and seriously damages the company's reputation," said Nike. "We have immediately asked relevant government departments to investigate those that started the rumor." Hmm.

Blair shunts Ecclestone

Despite the increasingly commercial outlook of the IOC, rank is not measured according to wealth here. Seldom can Bernie Ecclestone, who rubs shoulders with sheikh's and Monaco's monarch, have been asked to vacate his seat for another sports fan. But that was exactly what happened during Britain's gold rush at the velodrome last night when the billionaire formula one shareholder had to move from the super-VIPs' padded seats in favour of Tony Blair and the IOC member, Princess Anne.Watch this space

David Florence, the British canoeist who has added an Olympic silver medal to a CV that already boasts a degree in mathematical physics, may yet realize his dream of becoming an astronaut - with a little bit of help from this column. Florence said after his medal-winning performance in the canoe slalom that he had applied, unsuccessfully, to join the European Space Agency. He was turned down on the basis that he does not speak Russian. So we tracked down General Thomas Stafford, a chairman of one of Nasa's advisory councils and an ambassador for the Olympic sponsor, Omega. "Sure, I'd have a look at his CV and pass it on to the people who recruit the astronauts," said Stafford. Florence was delighted: "That would be fantastic." An email is shuttling to Stafford.