Warner is concerned that if Tottenham Hotspur's bid to take over the Olympic Stadium following London 2012 is successful then Britain will have failed to keep the promise which helped win it the bid in the first place.

Tottenham's joint bid with American entertainment giant AEG does not include keeping the track and the legacy that they offer athletics is unclear. 

"It is [essential] for Tottenham and AEG to go back to the original promise made in 2005," Warner told the BBC.

"That was about UK Athletics being at the heart of the Olympic Park.

"Tottenham and AEG have made it clear that they will rip up the track and make it a football only venue and that is hugely concerning to me," said Warner.

"There was a promise made back in 2005 by London 2012 chief Lord Coe to bring the Olympics to London.

"The greatest city in the world deserves a facility that is capable of hosting world championships and major athletics events.

"That is really the legacy we need from the Games for our sport.

"We've had sporadic conversations with AEG over the course of the year and one brief conversation with Spurs.

"Anything they might propose for an athletics legacy has to be a compromise to the stadium continuing to operate at a world-class level.

"To my mind that is completely unacceptable."

Tottenham are one of two short-listed bidders for the Stadium along with Premier League rivals West Ham United, who have promised to keep the track in a down-sized 60,000-seat arena.

If Britain fails to keep its promise to retain the track it would undoubtedly leave Lamine Diack, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), and several other International Olympic Committee (IOC) members with connections to the sport feeling cheated.

It was Sebastian Coe's promise during the bid that by awarding London the Olympics it would guarantee athletics the sort of world-class facility it has always lacked that turned the race.

It led to Diack and and several other IOC members transferring their support from the favourites Paris and instead backing London, which proved crucial at the final vote in Singapore in July 2005.

They had been against London's bid after the IAAF was forced to move the 2005 World Championships from Picketts Lock after Britain had failed to keep its promise to build a stadium to host them, despite then Prime Minister Tony Blair guaranteeing Diack that they would.

That followed a broken promise by Britain to build an athletics track in the redeveloped Wembley Stadium, which led to them having to withdraw a bid for the 2003 World Championships.

"Britain has a history of letting down the IOC and the IAAF in not delivering on promises on athletics," admitted Warner.

"I think it was instrumental in the Games coming here that that promise was made and if Britain reneges it would be a very sorry state of affairs.

"There is an important opportunity here to invest in a whole range of sports to sustain them for the future. West Ham and Newham have shown that they can embrace that opportunity and work with athletics with a very credible proposal.

"I would like to see Spurs and AEG come up with something equally exciting."

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