By James Pearce BBC sports news correspondent

Lord Moynihan's future as British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman may rest on the result of a row with London 2012 organisers, the BBC understands.

Senior BOA National Olympic Committee members will table a no-confidence vote in Moynihan if the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rules against it.

The BOA is entitled to 20% of any surplus from the 2012 Games.

But there is disagreement over whether that should mean just the Olympics or also include the Paralympics.

The BOA is challenging an International Olympic Committee ruling that it should not be able to take its share of any profit from the 2012 Games until the Paralympics have also been taken into account.

The BOA filed papers with CAS two weeks ago over its dispute with Locog - the London 2012 organising committee - and the hearing is likely to take place within the next four months.

Moynihan vowed to press on with the case at a BOA board meeting on Wednesday.

The IOC judgement, which has been seen by the BBC, is very clear-cut and most observers expect that the Lausanne-based CAS will also rule against the BOA.

The BOA's National Olympic Committee (NOC) contains representatives from all of the Olympic sports and is responsible for electing the organisation's chairman.

The concern among the members considering the no-confidence motion is that the BOA is spending money which it cannot afford, on a case which it is likely to lose.

"There is no way that CAS is going to go along with this," the leader of one sport's governing body told the BBC.

"Moynihan's position will be untenable if he loses. We have got to get the timing of the no-confidence motion right, but he can't possibly survive if he sustains that amount of collateral damage."

Another added: "Members of the NOC will have to ask themselves how the BOA got to this when we should all have been concentrating on winning gold medals."

The NOC is scheduled to meet next Tuesday, and Moynihan is sure to face tough questions.

By then he will be aware of the threat from some of the members of the action they will take if the BOA is defeated at CAS.

There is, of course, no guarantee that any motion of no confidence would be successful.

Whatever the outcome, it would be deeply embarrassing for the chairman of an Olympic association to face such action so close to hosting a Games.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version