Sport England and UK Sport today spelt out to the British Government that they cannot rely on any Lottery money to help fund a London bid to stage the 2012 Olympics.
Huge sums have been provided by Sport England for major projects in the past, including £120million for the new Wembley and £165million for the Commonwealth Games, but say the fall in Lottery ticket sales means they would not be able to help fund an Olympics.
Such statements do not mean that a bid cannot go ahead - the British Olympic Association insist that "not a penny of Lottery money" would be required for either a bid itself or staging the Games if a bid were successful. They say studies into the financial implications plan on any public funding coming straight from the Treasury.
The Government is due to decide on a London bid in mid-January and Sport England say falling Lottery income prevents them offering financial support.
Acting chief executive Roger Draper, who has taken over the reins after David Moffett jumped ship to the Welsh Rugby Union, said the organisation supported an Olympic bid but that the Government could not bank on Lottery money backing.
He said: "From a funding point of view, there's no point having an Olympic Games bid if all you are doing is raiding existing pots of money for sport, be it grass-roots sport, coaching or club development.
"If we are serious about sport in this country then you have to seriously invest in your infrastructure.
"If you are going to have wonderful stadia like Wembley and you are going to have Olympic bids you have to also make sure the investment is going into schools, to coaches and to clubs as well."
His views were echoed by Sir Rodney Walker, the chairman of UK Sport, the body detailed to oversee the bidding for major sports events in Britain and which partially funded the cost of Arup consultants' cost-benefit analysis of staging the Games. Walker said that there could not even be Lottery funding for the £15million cost of the actual bid itself.
"If the Government are going to support the bid they must do so on the clear understanding that they cannot rely on Lottery money to fund the bid or the facilities should a bid be successful," he said
The BOA, the Greater London Authority, the London Development Agency and virtually every sport governing body concerned all back a bid by the capital for 2012.
The Games would be based in Stratford in east London and the cost of staging them has been estimated at almost £2billion, although £1billion of this would be provided by the International Olympic Committee and there would be further income from sponsorship and ticket sales.
PA