London 2012 Olympics ticket sales the 'cruel engine of disappointment', as Boris Johnson demands transparency

The fear is that many more tickets to less popular Olympic events such as football are available to the public in order to achieve the goal of 75 per cent.

Previous Games have seen similar controversies. In Sydney, in 2000, organisers revealed they had just 14 tickets for sale in one price category to a diving final when they released their detailed ticketing information.

London Assembly chair of the economic, culture and sport committee, Dee Doocey, said she was encouraged the Mayor would pressure the Olympic board to release the ticket information immediately rather than after all the tickets had been sold.

"I am delighted that the Mayor supports the London Assembly's call for transparency from Locog," she said.

"In particular I welcome the fact that he has agreed to try to persuade Locog at the next Olympic Board meeting to immediately release the information.

"We need to know now how many tickets have been sold for each event, and at what price. If this information is not provided until all the tickets are sold it will be too late to do anything about it.

"Locog’s excuses for not publishing information are indefensible from an organisation that only exists because of a huge investment of public money."