Their qualification standards panel ratified the UK taekwondo body's selection of three players, but declined to do so over a fourth.
Generally, this is a rubber-stamping exercise for the BOA, provided athletes have fulfilled selection criteria. However, European 80-kilo champion Aaron Cook, who later this week will be named World No.1, was overlooked in favour of Lutalo Muhammad – a player ranked much lower than him.
Cook appealed to the governing body, who ignored the advice of their own performance director in nominating Muhammad for a second time. Cook then raised the matter with the BOA.
The standards panel, comprised of Team GB chef de mission Andy Hunt and his deputies, Sir Clive Woodward and Mark England, plus former Olympic oarswoman Sarah Winkless, yesterday requested an urgent meeting with British Taekwondo. They want to explore the way competitors were evaluated and be briefed on international scoring technicalities. They are also seeking clarification on the latter from the world federation.
They want the opportunity to question the selection committee, and will act on the 80-kilo nomination only after that.
"It is not for the BOA to pick athlete A or athlete B, but we must make certain the process is consistent and fair in accepting or rejecting a sport's nomination," their communications director, Darryl Seibel, told Herald Sport.
The row has split the taekwondo governing body, perhaps even raising questions over its governance. Performance director Gary Hall is understood to have backed Cook in two selection meetings, only to be over-ruled.
The BOA intervention, which must also be torture for his rival, Muhammad, will hopefully ensure justice is done. However, the BOA is setting a dangerous precedent. They have no right to interfere in the autonomy of national sports bodies, but are responsibile for sending out the best team. Normally, that's a mutually inclusive desire, but in this case, where it appears not to be so, they were damned if they did not act, damned if they did. In this case, I believe they are right to make an exception.
British Taekwondo seem intent on making an example of Cook because he dared to break ranks from their national squad in the interest of improving himself.
Cook quit the GB programme after an "embarrassing" first-round defeat at last summer's World Championships. He ascribed this to "negative" tactics which he had been required to adopt by a new coaching regime. He recruited his own team at considerable cost, despite having been cut off from high-performance funding.
This is not unique in British sport. Indeed, Susan Eggelstaff who will formally be named in the GB Olympic badminton squad today, has achieved this after deciding the British training environment at Milton Keynes did not suit her, and she has succeeded after having based herself in Glasgow.
Not every regime imposed by governing bodies – largely at the direction of UK Sport who bankroll programmes – suits every athlete. One size does not fit all, and it is part of the skill of elite performance management to recognise and nurture potentially maverick talent.
Cook established himself as a prodigy, winner of the German Open at 16, and youngest player to represent Britain at the Olympics in Beijing. At 17, he finished one place out of the medals.
Precocious and talented, he told me there that his ambition was to "kick double Olympic champion Steven Lopez in the head, preferably in the final."
The pair did not meet, and Lopez had to settle for bronze, but Cook got his wish at the 2009 World pro tour final where he beat American Lopez who has won five world titles and is now selected for a fourth Olympic Games.
Since deciding to go it alone, former world junior champion and Commonwealth Youth Games winner Cook has claimed the British title last year, the US Open title in February and the Dutch Open in March.
Given current sporting and legal attitudes to restraint of trade, this row could escalate into the courts.
That's a prospect which the BOA's Hunt is clearly aware of, having commented regarding selection this week: "As an organisation, we take that responsibility massively seriously, because it affects people's livelihoods and careers."
If the BOA don't ratify British Taekwondo's nomination, the governing body may challenge them in the Court of Arbitration for sport.
If Taekwondo, under pressure from the BOA, do not nominate Cook, he may then opt to pursue the matter at CAS. As we said, all pretty unedifying.
But professional sport is no longer about the stiff upper lip, and accepting the whims of amateur selectors, as it was in the 1960s. We recall the Border influence on SRU selection, determined to uphold Hugh Mcleod's 40-cap record, declining to pick Dave Rollo of Howe of Fife, still at the peak of his powers, after he reached McLeod's tally. Committees, coaches, men with petty jealousies, scores to pay off, and spiteful egos running riot, are bad for sport.
But one-size-fits-all performance plans run by UK Sport accountants are not a perfect solution. The alternatives are not so edifying, either – Bosman, restraint of trade, greed, and a raft of related issues in numerous sports which will keep on ending in the courts.
