The Hellenic Olympic Committee would like to make the following statement with regard to the untrue and misleading "SUNDAY TIMES" article on the LONDON 2012 Olympic Games tickets:
1. The ticket sales for the Olympic Games "London 2012" for Greece was assigned to the company "Marcus Evans" according to the decision of the HOC Plenary Session, following an international bid, in which the largest companies operating in the area participated. The whole process was totally transparent and in accordance with the laws of the Greek State. Therefore, there can be no issue on creating a "black market" by the HOC which did not buy any tickets, whatsoever.
2. The Marcus Evans won the bid for EUR 300,000, an amount ten times higher compared with the corresponding amount of the bid held for the "Beijing 2008" Olympic Games. The whole sum of EUR 300,000 was exclusively allocated to the preparation of Olympic athletes of top level, at a time when, due to difficult economic conditions, the State stopped funding the Olympic Preparation.
3. The journalists of the Sunday Time, violating all principles of journalistic ethics, pretended to be representatives of a ticket selling company, and had even created a fake webpage. The whole discussion concerned the Winter Olympic Games "Sochi 2014". The video recording was made with a hidden camera, in a misleading way too, while the publishing of the statements of the HOC President, Mr. Spyros Capralos was fragmentary and a patchwork of answers, made in a way that served the authors of the article.
4. Even in the published statements of the HOC President – which we would like to stress once more that they are a product of a patchwork - as every reader can notice, there is nothing reproachable. On the contrary, the way of operating and the allocation of the tickets of the Olympic Games is explained.
5. Regarding the other issue mentioned in the article, that extra tickets were requested from the President of the Organizing Committee of the "London 2012" Olympic Games, Lord Sebastian Coe, the direct and flat contradiction of the issue by the Organizing Committee of the "London 2012" Olympic Games, provides a clear answer.
To conclude, the Hellenic Olympic Committee would like to underline that it reserves all legal rights in order to protect itself from such immoral attacks in the future.
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