Source: insidethegames.biz | By Duncan Mackay in Durban
July 5 - The London 2012 ticketing system has been defended by Jacques Rogge, the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who claimed that the demand to watch the Games was "amazing".
The system has been condemned in Britain but is being hailed as a major success internationally.
"We're amazed by the demand for tickets for the London Olympics," said Rogge, who is here for the 123rd IOC Session, where a delegation from London 2012 is due to make a presentation on its preparations.
"Seven million [tickets] on sale and 20 million wanting tickets.
There were 22 million requests for 6.6 million available tickets, with 1.2 million applicants getting nothing.
But Rogge insisted that, although it was unfortunate not everybody had been awarded tickets, there was nothing wrong with the system.
"You're bound to have people who are unhappy," he said.
"I can just say the system put in place by LOCOG is a fair system.
"It is a good balance between the international and national."
In total, more than 3.5 million Olympic tickets have now been sold for London 2012 and around 850,000 successful applications have been made for tickets with less than two million tickets remaining.
The next phase will see ticket sales open to the 700,000 applicants who were successful in all or part of their ticket applications in the first round sale.
It is due to open on Friday (July 8) at 6am and close on July 17 at 6pm but only football, volleyball and freestyle wrestling tickets remain with all other sports sold out.
Around 1.5 million football tickets remain for men's and women's matches at Wembley Stadium, City of Coventry Stadium, Millenium Stadium, Hampden Park, St James Park and Old Trafford.
Meanwhile there are around 40,000 volleyball tickets are available for men's and women's volleyball sessions at Earls Court and around 8,000 freestyle wrestling tickets are available for sessions at the ExCel Arena.