Figures contained in the recently-published International Olympic Committee (IOC) final report covering the 2009-2012 quadrennium reveal that the IOC's allocation to the International Council of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) surged to more than $8 million (£5 million/€6 million) in 2012.

The $8.07 million (£5.03 million/€5.96 million) figure compares with $6.57 million (£4.09 million/€4.85 million) in 2011 and means that the amount earmarked for this purpose has climbed almost 68 per cent in just two years.

When converted into Swiss Francs, the rate of increase is somewhat slower at around 51 per cent between 2010 and 2012.

By contrast, funds earmarked by the IOC for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) edged ahead by just two per cent over the same two-year period.

ICAS was set up in 1994 in order to safeguard the "absolute independence" of the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Under the agreement that constituted ICAS, its activities and those of CAS were to be financed one-third by the IOC, one-quarter by the International Olympic Summer Sports Federations, one-twelfth by the International Olympic Winter Sports Federations and one-third by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC).

The contributions of the three entities other than the IOC were to be effected through deductions made by the IOC from the sums allocated to them from the IOC's television rights revenue.

Fortunately for the IOC, the 2009-2012 quadrennium also brought a strong advance in the value of Olympic Games broadcasting rights.

The rate of increase in this vital revenue source is set, however, to be much more pedestrian in the present quadrennium, running until 2016.

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