BOA eager to resolve Olympic 2012 money row with Locog

The BOA wants its share of the Olympic surplus paid before Paralympic costs are taken into account

British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan said a financial dispute with 2012 organisers Locog needs to be resolved quickly for the good of sport.

The two organisations are at loggerheads over the allocation of profits from the London Olympics.

Moynihan hoped the disagreement could be "concluded as soon as possible" but insisted the BOA would not back down.

"[The money] is important because everything the BOA does is for sport, athletes and legacy," he stated.

The disagreement, which BOA vice-chairman David Hemery likened to "a marriage dispute", centres on the size of any surplus the BOA will get and at what point the expected loss from staging the Paralympics will be taken into account.

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The BOA is currently entitled to 20% of any surplus and want its cut to be paid before the Paralympics costs are included.

Locog said in a statement earlier in March that it believed both events must be treated as one financially and the International Olympic Council subsequently ruled in its favour.

The IOC decision prompted the BOA, which currently faces a funding shortfall, to take the dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) in Lausanne.

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said after meeting Lord Moynihan on Tuesday: "The government is not and cannot be a mediator in a dispute.

"I reiterated there was no additional government money available to help.

"I have encouraged the BOA to resolve the matter as quickly as possible in order to allow everyone to get back to making preparations to ensure 2012 is a great success."

There has been no sign so far that either the BOA or Locog is prepared to back down and unless a settlement can be reached the issue will remain until the case goes to Cas in the summer.

Lord Coe, chairman of Locog, added that he felt the situation had been correctly ruled upon by the IOC.

"This dispute is narrow and technical. The right organisation to resolve that dispute has resolved it. The IOC has made a judgement, that judgement is full and binding," Lord Coe commented.

"This really does not impact on the delivery of Team GB or Paralympics GB. The Government has funding in place for the athletes.

"It does not impact on the staging of the Games and that is what we do. The Government have made it very clear they are not mediating in this and there is no public money."

Moynihan insisted the BOA was not seeking government money and said that he hoped for a "satisfactory solution" as the disagreement was "not good for sport".

"I emphasise it is not about more government money, it is a commercial issue between two private organisations," Moynihan stressed.

Lord Moynihan and BOA chief executive Andy Hunt were both excluded from Locog meetings after the appeal to Cas was launched.

Lord Moynihan has faced questions about his future at the head of the BOA, with some suggesting the episode has brought embarrassment to the organisation so close to the 2012 Olympics.

The BOA's financial position has been extremely weak in recent years, and earlier this month the organisation admitted it still did not have sufficient funds to support Team GB during the Games.

Meanwhile, London 2012's chief financial officer Neil Wood has issued a statement in response to Moynihan's claim that the Games will make a £400m profit.

"With reference to a claims by the BOA of a meeting last July between Locog and the BOA in which statements allegedly were made by me to the effect that the Olympics would make a profit of about £400m with the Paralympics making a corresponding loss and at a subsequent meeting I allegedly revised this figure down to £300m - I have never made such statements, which are in fact untrue."