The BOA must find up to £5 million ($8 million) to help it meet its obligations to support at least 500 athletes in the country's biggest Olympic team in more than a century.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have got involved to renegotiate the Joint Marketing Agreement between the Organising Committee and the BOA - which they have the power to change.

The dispute also involves the Paralympic Games and a row over whether the event should be subsided by the Olympics by up to £400 million ($648 million).

Under the Host City Contract, the BOA is entitled to 20 per cent of any operating surplus, with the IOC also receiving 20 per cent - 60 per cent goes into a trust fund for the benefit of sport in Britain, a figure that will be affected if that money is used to help pay for the Paralympics.

But despite the concerns ParalympicsGB have expressed their confidence that the "original vision" for the Paralympics will be delivered and that the competition will be seen as truly parallel with the Olympics.

A ParalympicsGB spokesperson said: "The BPA (British Paralympic Association) remains supportive of the original vision for a festival of sport integrating both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"We are confident that when 2012 comes, the nation will embrace the Games, take the British teams to their hearts and appreciate the Paralympic Games as the truly parallel, elite sporting event that they are."

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe has referred to the disagreement as "narrow and technical" and believes that it will soon be resolved without any damage to the organisation of the Olympics and Paralympics.

Earlier this month, a London spokeswoman told our sister site insidethegames: "The vision for London 2012, created by the BOA, Government and the Mayor of London and set out in the Bid Book ,is for one festival of sport, with an integrated Olympic and Paralympic Games, underpinned by a single budget.

"It is sad that this vision is now disputed by the new leadership of the BOA."

Despite the intervention of the IOC the matter, however, may be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if a solution cannot be found, BOA chairman Colin Moynihan has threatened.

Andy Hunt, the BOA chief executive, is blaming the agreement negotiated with London 2012 over joint marketing rights that he inherited from the former chief executive Simon Clegg, for the crisis.

Hunt claims that the joint marketing agreement with London 2012 was undervalued and that the BOA is receiving only £19 million ($31 million) in cash over seven years compared to the £71 million ($115 million) that the Canadian Olympic Committee received for a much smaller Olympic Winter Games.

London 2012 disputes the BOA accusations and claims that three years ago they provided an extra £6 million ($10 million) in cash and value-in-kind payments to help the BOA overcome its financial problem while it is claimed the BOA also received another £6.5million ($10.5 million) in sponsorship and asset sales in 2009 from the Organising Committee.

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