just weeks from the sport's best chance to market itself through the Winter Olympics, officials at Scottish skating's national body are poised to put the organisation into cold storage.

A combination of a lack of recognition for Sk8scotland by the sport's international authorities and a lack of domestic funding have led its officials to come to the conclusion that it has no future as its own entity.

However, Bryan Morrice, the out-going chairman who has given a lifetime's service to the sport, stressed that there is no dispute between Sk8scotland and the British governing body, the National Ice Skating Association, of which it is a wholly owned subsidiary.

"I must emphasise that there is no disagreement between Sk8scotland and NISA," said Morrice who was vice-chairman of NISA from 1995-2006, before stepping down from that post in order to focus on Sk8scotland, having been its been chairman since 1998. "The difficulties are ­basically logistical and largely due to the ISU recognising only NISA. The model we tried to implement for Sk8scotland doesn't really work and depended too much on too few individuals."

His particular ambition in seeking to build the influence of a Scottish national governing body was to improve development opportunities for Scottish competitors and officials. For that to be achievable, it would have required Scotland to be recognised as a separate governing body by the International Skating Union, which was not forthcoming.

There had also been the hope that having a separate identity would release increased support from - in particular - sportscotland, but Sk8scotland was not deemed to meet the necessary criteria.

Morrice's priority now is to preserve the history of the sport - he believes that putting the organisation into liquidation would jeopardise that - while he is also conscious that another rethink may be required if Scotland itself has a separate identity by the end of this year.

"The probable future for Sk8scotland is to be placed into dormancy [rather than dissolving], thereby allowing continued use of the Sk8scotland identity and heritage. This will all be subject to an egm yet to be held," he said. "If Scotland votes for independence, there would have to be some sort of transition and, in that case, there is the probability an organisation would be recognised."

He remains keen to allay concerns those involved in competitive skating in Scotland may have. "Nothing in this will have any real impact on the skaters in Scotland," he said. "The flagship Trophy d'Ecosse will continue and it is to be hoped that the Scottish Championships will also continue, supported logistically by NISA and overseen by a Scotland Board director."