BOA suspends legal action

The British Olympic Association on Wednesday suspended its legal action against the organiser of the London 2012 Games and fresh talks are planned to try to resolve the cash dispute.

London 2012 organisers LOCOG have agreed to a request by the BOA for a new meeting, who in turn have suspended the case lodged with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

BOA communications director Darryl Seibel told Press Association Sport: "We have taken the decision to suspend the case before CAS, and have notified CAS of that. We have requested a meeting with LOCOG and they have agreed, and the purpose is to continue working together towards a resolution."

He added: "It has been our desire all along to resolve this outside the legal process and we are pleased to have this opportunity with LOCOG."

The move by the BOA is expected to lead to several meetings but no timescale has been set.

The BOA are due 20% of any surplus after the Games but are claiming the cost of staging the Paralympics should not be taken into account when calculating that surplus.

Although their legal action has only been suspended rather than withdrawn, it now seems likely that the dispute will not end up in the court.

The BOA's action has lost them much goodwill - Olympics minister Hugh Robertson on Tuesday night called it "an embarrassment" and IOC president Jacques Rogge is understood to be furious that they went ahead with a court submission after the international body had ruled against them.

Last week, London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe branded the BOA's court challenge against London 2012 as "spurious" and "depressing".