Sergei Bubka, president of the Ukrainian Olympic Committee, said he had suspended the secretary general of his NOC over claims he had sold tickets for the London Olympics on the black market.

Bubka, a pole vault legend who has forged a successful career in sports politics, said that he had no option but to suspend Volodymyr Geraschchenko after the BBC had revealed that he had been exposed in a sting operation trying to sell on 100 tickets for the Games.

“I immediately suspended Volodymyr Geraschchenko,” said the 48-year-old.

“We are going to set up an independent commission to investigate. We must be fair and come to a correct decision.”

Bubka, Olympic champion in 1988 and a six-time world outdoor champion, added he was cutting short his trip to Canada – where there is an IOC meeting at the annual Sport Accord Convention – to return to Ukraine.

After receiving information that someone from Ukraine’s national Olympic committee might be prepared to sell tickets, a BBC reporter posing as an unauthorised ticket dealer from the UK spoke to Gerashchenko who confirmed he would be prepared to sell tickets.

Gerashchenko has been general secretary of his national Olympic committee since 1997.

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