BOA make changes to team agreement

(GETTY IMAGES)

British Olympic Association chairman Lord Moynihan has admitted that plans to oblige athletes to attend a VIP sponsors dinner during next summer's Games in London were "an error" and have now been scrapped.

The proposal was contained in the draft Team Members' Agreement which all athletes will have to sign in order to be part of Team GB, but has now been removed after they complained it would distract from their performances.

The agreement also reveals British athletes who win gold medals will receive a £10,000 payment from the Royal Mail in return for using their image on commemorative stamps.

Moynihan told BBC Sport: "When the VIP dinner issue came up it struck me that could impact on (athletes') performance. That's the last thing in the world the British Olympic Association should be focused on.

"It struck me that was an error - it was an error to even think that athletes should appear during the Games when they should be utterly 100% focused on performance.

"It's part of a negotiation. For the first time in my lifetime it is a document that is negotiated and discussed with the athletes themselves and lots of things come in and lots of things go out."

The BOA have also dropped a demand for athletes to take part in a major team launch on May 11, saying it is their choice whether to attend, but the agreement expects them to agree to take part in two victory celebrations - the first two days after the Olympic closing ceremony on August 14 and an athletes parade in London on September 10.

Under the agreement, athletes are are allowed to write blogs or use Twitter, but not to write personal columns for newspapers during the Games.

The strict terms governing commercial branding include a clause that athletes must not wear, or even have tattooed or on contact lenses, "any name, logo, design or identification of any commercial or political entity in any shape or form other than as expressly permitted in this Agreement.

"Any pre-existing tattoos and other body modifications or body art that contravene this clause must be covered up."

Team members are also banned from betting on any event at the Games.

Ironically, the athletes must also undertake to keep the Agreement confidential and not to disclose any of its terms.