The announcement was made on the opening day of this Executive Board meeting here.

But IOC officials claimed that President Thomas Bach will still attend the Opening Ceremony of what is regarded as world sport's most important annual conference, attended by more than 2,500 leading representatives from the industry.

This year's event, due to be held between April 19 and 24, has been rebranded as the SportAccord Convention World Sport & Business Summit and will be held in the Sochi ExpoCentre built to house the Main Media Centre on the Olympic Park during last year's Games. 

It is the second blow to the prestige of the Convention following the decision taken last December, as part of the IOC's Agenda 2020 reforms, that cities bidding to host the Olympics and Paralympics would no longer be allowed to present to delegates.

The IOC claim it was to minimise the amount of money a bidding city spent on its campaign.

The IOC denied this latest decision was intended as a snub to organisers of SportAccord Convention, an event created and owned by SportAccord, the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations and the Association of International Olympic Winter Federations.

Vladimir Putin attended SportAccord Convention when it was held in St Petersburg in 2013 ©Getty Images

The IOC also insisted the decision was not anything to do with the current situation with Russia, which has faced international criticism following its annexation of Crimea and the conflict with neighbouring Ukraine.

When SportAccord Convention was held in St Petersburg in 2013 the visitors included Russian President Vladimir Putin, who attended a special ceremony to launch the medals for Sochi 2014. 

"It was decided that a meeting so soon after this one was not necessary," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said.

"But the President [Thomas Bach] himself will still be attending the event."

The 15-member IOC Executive Board will instead hold its next meeting in the summer to coincide with the Candidate City Briefing for Almaty and Beijing, the bidders for the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics, in Lausanne on June 8.