British fans miss out again on Games tickets

Games organisers confirmed that 10 per cent of the 150,000 people who applied for tickets on Friday ended up with nothing.

The computer system run by Ticketmaster was operated on a first-come, first-served basis but organisers say the system was not live – meaning that people were able to submit applications even though the high-demand sports had sold out.

A London 2012 spokeswoman said: “Over 150,000 applications have been processed since Friday for around 850,000 tickets. Just under 90 per cent received tickets, subject to payment.

“Around 10 per cent have not been successful due to the massive demand during the first two hours of sales where 10 sports sold out, some within 15 minutes.

“Since the Ticketmaster system was not a live system, we were always clear that we could not guarantee that every submitted request would be guaranteed a ticket.

“Emails are being sent to applicants today and whilst more applicants now have tickets to the Games, we know that there are still some disappointed customers and we will do everything we can to get them to the Games.

“Over a million new tickets will be offered to the British public next year from contingency seats, once venues are tested and licensed, and we aim to get as many of these tickets as possible into the hands of customers who have missed out to date.”

Applications made on the system since the second sales window opened at 6am on Friday are still being processed.

Organisers said 17 Olympics sports and disciplines sold out of tickets on Friday. Tickets remained for only five sports – football, volleyball, wrestling, weightlifting and boxing. Athletics, basketball, handball, judo and rowing were among the sports that sold out.

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said: “Over 130,000 more people will now have tickets to the Games following the first day of the ‘second chance sale’ on Friday.

“We know there is still some disappointment from those who were not successful in their requests but we will continue do everything we can to get them to the Games.

“Over a million new tickets will be offered to the British public next year from contingency seats, once venues are tested and licensed, and we aim to get as many of these tickets as possible into the hands of customers who have missed out to date.”

Meanwhile the controversy surrounding ticket sales for next year’s London Olympics continued as it emerged that around 150,000 tickets marketed to Britons were snapped up by other European Union residents.

People in other EU countries obtained just under five per cent of the three million tickets which went on sale in the first round ballot, the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) confirmed.

EU law meant they were free to apply for the tickets, despite being allocated their own batch of seats.

However the committee stressed the system “works both ways”, with many Britons trying to buy tickets through European agents.

The Tory MP for Witham, Essex, Priti Patel, said: “British taxpayers and Londoners who have paid through their taxes to fund the Games will be alarmed and hugely disappointed to see they were not given priority on tickets when they went on sale. The system is a farce.”