EU tells UK; you cannot prioritise UK taxpayer before EU citizens when it comes to Olympics tickets

I am just going to rip the entire thing from the Telegraph - I am truly flabbergasted. All I shall say is this; British taxpayers paid for the Olympics yet they do not have dibs on the first tickets? Non sequitur statement my dear Brussels benefit squanderers.

Sports fans in European Union countries have the legal right to buy the London 2012 tickets when they go on sale to the public next year.
With London so accessible and the mandatory inclusion of European involvement in the local ticket programme, the demand for the 9.3 million London Olympic and Paralympic tickets is expected to be particularly intense.

But Telegraph Sport has been told that Britons will not have any exclusive access to the tickets, nor any advance purchase opportunities. On a political level there are approaches being made to see if there is any possibility of reserving a percentage of tickets for the British public, but early indications appear that any such move would contravene the European Union act.

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, said on Tuesday: "The reality is we signed the European Union act in 1971, we are part of the European political landscape and my instinct is that the tickets have to be made available to Europe at the same time as Britain.''

Locog is planning to allow British people to pre-register for tickets later this year. This will allow the organisers to understand which events and sessions will be the most popular but it will not provide any advantage in securing tickets.

When the London tickets are eventually released to the public next year, it will be via a ballot, with ticket orders being made through the internet over a yet to be determined period of time.
"It is not first past the post,'' said Locog chief executive Paul Deighton.
Coe said Locog had conducted the most rigorous research into ticket sales, "more than any other organising committee has done''.

He said: "We know we have got to get it right, potentially this is one of our biggest challenges. We understand the need for people to understand these are their Games and they will want access to these Games. We are doing a lot of to work it out.
"We want tickets to be distributed to people who most want to go, we want the tickets into the fans' hands.''

Hugh Robertson MP, the Tories' shadow Sports and Olympics spokesman, said it would be an absolute tragedy for taxpayers if they were not able to buy the majority of Olympic tickets available.

Locog has already signalled to the International Olympic Committee that it wants to restructure some of the VIP areas that are reserved for the Olympic family and the media for some of the morning sessions, which in past Olympics have featured blocks of empty seats.
It is understood that Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, has requested the Foreign Office to have a second look at the European Union competition law.

Bet you didn't see that one coming now did you?