Ukraine Games boss quits over Olympic black market ticket scandal
Source: AFP
KYIV — The longtime general secretary of Ukraine’s National Olympics Committee (NOC) resigned Monday following claims that he sought to sell tickets for the London Games on the black market.
“Volodymyr Gerashchenko has submitted his resignation from the position of general secretary of the NOC,” the committee said in a statement, adding that he pledged to cooperate with an independent investigation commission.
A sting operation last week exposed Gerashchenko trying to sell some 100 tickets for the summer Olympics.
In a bid to contain a growing scandal that also threatens to shadow Ukraine’s cohosting of next month’s European Championships, the country’s NOC said it developed “an immediate reaction plan,” with three top Ukrainian legal experts appointed to a newly-created independent investigation commission.
“The Ukraine NOC is an independent, nongovernmental organization working openly and in accordance with the highest ethical principles, and it is committed to putting every effort into investigating this issue,” the statement added.
The swift reaction to the claims was led by the president of Ukraine’s NOC, pole vaulting great Sergey Bubka, who immediately suspended Gerashchenko, general secretary since 1997, after the report emerged last week.
After receiving information that someone from the NOC might be prepared to sell tickets, a BBC reporter posing as an unauthorized ticket dealer from Britain spoke to Gerashchenko, who reportedly confirmed that he would be prepared to sell tickets.
The scandal blew up at an extremely uncomfortable moment for Ukraine, as it prepares for Euro 2012 amid Western disapproval over its treatment of jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko and concern over racism in the country.
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