BERNARD ALLEN, the Minister for Sport, is to meet officials of the Olympic Council of Ireland and Bord Luthchleas na hEireann in separate sessions at the offices of the Department of Education in Dublin today.

It marks the latest phase in the ongoing rift between the OCI and its most important constituent member body after a series of public relations disasters in Atlanta.

Allen, who was present in Atlanta for much of the Centennial Games, is upset that an internal dispute was inflated into an unseemly public squabble in the Olympic city.

That disquiet is thought to be shared by several members of the Cabinet and at one point, Roy Dooney, a former international athlete who acts as a special adviser to the Taoiseach, was involved in the talks which led to an uneasy truce between the parties during the closing days of the Games.

The organisations have been in open conflict for much of the last two years and in the wake of happenings in Atlanta, those differences are still as stark as ever.

BLE are adamant that they were acting within the rules of the International Amateur Athletics Federation and in line with an agreement worked out with the OCI some months earlier, in insisting on members of the track and field team wearing ASICS apparel in Atlanta.

They contend that the OCI president, Pat Hickey, misrepresented that situation when he summoned a press conference in controversial circumstances the day after Sonia O'Sullivan had failed in the 5000 metres final.

Further, it is alleged that details of how O'Sullivan was made to strip in public and change to the official team uniform, were deliberately leaked to RTE to discredit them and that this process was continued when Hickey summoned a conference, attended by a corps of international press people the following day.

They are also indignant about the treatment of Nick Davis, the track and field team manager, whom, they allege, was hassled by OCI officials in the Olympic village and threatened with dismissal.

The Olympic Council claim that BLE was directly responsible for Sonia O'Sullivan being humiliated after direct intervention by a member of the official track and field party.

They also question the decision of the athletics body to convene a press conference to air their grievances during the closing days of the Games at a stage when the public at large had begun to be weary of the points at issue.

The dispute over the gear is a microcosm of a much wider issue as to whether the International Olympic Committee or the International Amateur Athletics Federation takes precedence in the structuring and presentation of the track and field sector of the Olympic Games.

It also reflects an underlying sense of grievance, not held exclusively by BLE, over the manner in which the OCI is administered by its president, Hickey.

Hickey, perceived as a shrewd but confrontational figure who came to office by mustering the votes of the smaller federations affiliated to the OCI on Des O'Sullivan's retirement in 1988, took the lead role in denouncing BALE in Atlanta.

Later, he himself would be indicted by the athletics body for authorising the accreditation of Gary McCallum, an employee of Reebok, and Kim McDonald, O'Sullivan's agent, as athletics coaches in Atlanta at a time when BLE personnel were refused similar status.

It is against this background, that Allen will seeks some pertinent answers today, the prelude to what may prove a difficult period for the OCI.