Sir Keith is tasked with working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Sport England and UK Sport to merge both organisations into one single body, a process due to be completed by April 1, 2013.

The appointment of Sir Keith, 60, as chairman of the Project Board, was welcomed at the time by Sport England chair Richard Lewis and UK Sport chair Baroness Sue Campbell, while Sir Keith himself, who admits the process of combining UK Sport and Sport England is only at a preliminary stage, feels the merger could set a precedent for sport organisations across the UK.

"We are in the scoping phase of the merger at the moment where we are discussing the business plans so it is really all the boring stuff at the moment," Sir Keith told insidethegames.

"The discussions at present concern where this organisation is going to live, what the back offices are going to look like and what the vision for the future is so we are not at an advanced stage with this at all.

"But I think there is a real opportunity here to use the merger of UK Sport and Sport England as a catalyst to get more sports organisations to work together.

"Sport in this country - and indeed in many countries - is very complicated and complex in many organisations and I don't think they work closely enough together.

"I think there are some great synergies by bringing them closer together.

"I was recently in Loughborough where they have got a number of Governing Bodies that have come together in one building.

"Sport England and UK Sport are both there right next to the Sports Technology Institute and it really works.

"So I think that we can use the coming together of these two bodies as a way of bringing the rest of sport together.

"At the end of the day, it is all about increasing participation in sport and that means everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction."

Sir Keith, who was the chief executive of London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, added that there is a strong possibility that the organisation could be located at the Olympic Park in Stratford after the Games but that nothing has yet been confirmed.

"The Olympic Park is certainly a very realistic possibility for the organisation to be based," he said.

"We are absolutely looking at the Olympic Park but we are also looking at other sites around the country too so nothing has yet been decided."

Sir Keith - who is now the vice-chairman of London 2012 - is also a non-executive director of Tottenham Hotspur but is perhaps best known as the self-made millionaire who developed the air miles scheme for British Airways before launching the Nectar loyalty programme.

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