The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which will rule on whether the likes of sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar should be eligible to compete at the London 2012 Olympics, normally holds its hearings at its headquarters in Lausanne.
However, the case, which is scheduled for March 12, will now be heard at an undisclosed venue in London.
It means the fate of the affected athletes will be decided in the very city that is hosting the Games this summer, though the reason for the switch of venues is understood to be purely practical because most of the lawyers involved in the case are London-based.
The BOA is appealing against a decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to declare it “non-compliant” with the WADA code on the grounds that its lifetime ban amounts to a second punishment over and above the mandatory two-year suspension laid down by the code.
The BOA claims the ban, which is enshrined in a 19-year-old by-law, is a matter of eligibility rather than punishment and that it should be free to set its own selection policy.
