As athletics awaits the decision on the destiny of the Olympic Stadium, the influential PR guru behind the Paris 2012 bid says the French campaign o cials predicted seven years ago that London could go back on its word on the legacy promises.

With International Olympic Committee members unable to visit bidding cities, the part played by public relations companies in the outcome is hugely significant. Jon Tibbs, who led the PR campaign for Paris to host the 2012 Games, admitted that if Tottenham Hotspur were chosen over West Ham by the Olympic Park Legacy Committee (OPLC) and went ahead with their plans to tear up the athletics stadium, there would be “huge anger and bitterness” among those he worked with.

The British PR executive, who heads Jon Tibbs Associates and is a veteran of such campaigns, told Athletics Weekly: “It’s what they (the Paris 2012 bidding team) predicted as early as April 2005. We were in a room going through the London bid book and they looked at the pledges and they didn’t believe that it was going to be left as a track. They predicted that it was probably going to be used for football or knocked down completely at some stage. I found myself, being a Brit, defending the British sense of fair play and honesty and said they would never renege on their promises.”

Tibbs is joined by several highprofile individuals who last week sided with the bid made by West Ham, who promise to keep the athletics track – including Lord Coe and Lamine Diack.

He said there was a “moral responsibility” to follow through with the legacy promises.

“There were six to eight IOC members at the time who were related to athletics who probably voted for London in the final rounds,” said Tibbs. “We’ll never know but let’s assume they did. That includes Lamine Diack, Sergey Bubka, Hicham El Guerrouj and Nawal El Moutawakel. They were all under the impression that London would be leaving a lasting legacy for athletics.

“If they had known that even there was a possibility that it was going to be knocked down for a football stadium, do people honestly believe they would have voted for London? They probably wouldn’t have done and that would have meant that Paris would have won and we wouldn’t even be having this argument.”

Tibbs, whose company worked on the successful Sochi bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics and on the 2007 rebrand of European athletics, echoed the words of Diack when stressing the massive implications of the decision going Spurs’ way.

“There would be massive implications for Coe personally as he is at some stage due to go into a contest for the IAAF presidency with Bubka. There would also be a credibility blow for Britain for future bids.

“It will leave a nasty taste in the mouth around the corridors of power around the world that, in some shape or form, London 2012 hoodwinked the Olympic movement.”A decision on a preferred bidder from the OPLC was possible today (Friday), but it has now been put back. The mayor and government would then have to rubber-stamp the ruling.