Coe accused of secrecy over Games ticket sales

Lord Coe has denied being “obsessed with secrecy” over the running of the 2012 Olympic Games, including the controversial issue of tickets.

In a question-and-answer session at the London Assembly, the London 2012 chairman was accused of running the body like a closed “oligarchy”.

The flashpoint was transparency over a breakdown over tickets in terms of price and by events, including prestige competitions such as the 100 metres, so a statistical analysis could be made on whether London 2012 was keeping its promises to make seats affordable.

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Dee Doocey, chair of the assembly’s economy, sport and culture committee, told Lord Coe: “You are obsessed with secrecy.”

She also claimed that data protection and client confidentiality had been used to avoid providing a statistical analysis, which “should be available at the hit of a button”.

Lord Coe hit back, saying: “I am not going to divert the attention of my team, who still have four million tickets and revenue targets to meet, because that is how we fund the Games. We are being entirely transparent here.”