Olympic tickets Bangladeshis deprived
SYDNEY, Jan 27: Hundreds of Bangladeshis who fronted up with thousands of dollars to travel to Sydney for the Olympic Games have been told they will not be able to get tickets to events, a report here said today, reports AFP.
The 600 Bangladeshis had bought tickets through a Sydney restaurateur who told Sydney's Daily Telegraph he will now have to refund 150,000 Australian (97,500 US) dollars after he was unable to secure tickets.
Nurul Azad said he had been acting as an agent for The Olympic Club, a botched attempt to lure Australian members which began targetting people overseas when its efforts at home failed.
"I lost face... my point of view is it really damaged the Australian image and they (the Bangladeshi clients) are disappointed," he said.
The club's management, TOC Management Services, signed agents to sell Olympic Club merchandise kits to Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Turkey and Macedonia.
Tickets were not included in the packages, however some overseas agents were led to believe the management company would help them secure seats at Games venues.
Police in Australia began investigating the scheme after a Chinese agent for the Olympic Club was charged with fraud for allegedly selling packages which included tickets.
Police have since broadened their investigation to agents in other countries.
Azad, whose packages included seats to various events, said he had been told by the management group that he was "100 per cent" assured of tickets.
But his plan foundered when the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) took over the running of the club in August of 1999 because of its poor performance.
SOCOG insisted tickets were never part of its deal with the Olympic Club.
Keith Wyness, former managing director of the Olympic Club, said tickets had never been guaranteed to agents.
"We'd ask SOCOG if they had any tickets spare that we could offer to them - that's not promising tickets to anybody."
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