Coe was reported by the London Paper to have made the remark during a reception hosted by London 2012 at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

 

The story in the London Paper published on Tuesday said: “Team GB will have a football team for the 2012 Games, Seb Coe has confirmed, whatever opposition is put up by the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish.

 

“The creation of the team has been opposed by the Football Associations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, who are concerned it may compromise their individual status within FIFA.

 

“But he said the BOA (British Olympic Association), which selects teams for the Games, has decided to press ahead with a football squad despite the opposition. When asked last night about the opposition from the Welsh and Scots,

 

"Coe replied bluntly: ‘F*** ’em!’”

 

The story appeared in the print edition of the London Paper, a free sheet which is read by tens of thousands of commuters.

 

It was subsequently removed from the paper’s website, but was commented upon on numerous blogs, as well as being reproduced on other websites, including that of the Campaign for an English Parliament.

 

A spokeswoman for London 2012 said: “Our lawyers have communicated our very serious concerns to the London Paper.

 

"They have taken the story off their website.

 

"We are discussing with them the wording of a retraction we want them to publish, but that has not been concluded.

 

"We do not recognise the language [attributed to Coe].

 

"We certainly deny the gist of the story, that he [Coe] is not interested in the views of Wales and Scotland.”

 

The London Paper story carried the byline of its assistant editor Dominic Midgeley, a former Daily Mirror journalist who is the biographer of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich.

 

Neither Midgeley nor any other senior staff of the London Paper were available for comment.

 

Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price, who has campaigned for some of the 2012 Olympics events to come to Wales, said: “I shall be writing to Lord Coe asking him categorically to deny making the remark.

 

"If he had made the remark - and it wouldn’t matter whether it was on or off the record - it would be a resigning matter.

 

“It would be completely unacceptable for the head of the 2012 organising committee to show such an attitude towards the views of the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish football associations.”

 

Iestyn ap Dafydd, of the Welsh language communities campaign group Cymuned, said: “If these remarks, or the sentiment behind them, were true, it would show a total lack of sensitivity within the London establishment towards anything which doesn’t fit with their narrow view of Britishness.

 

“They’ve reassigned hundreds of millions of our taxes, and millions of lottery funding originally going to help our communities, and now, the London Olympics are trying to deny us any influence in the running of the Games.

 

“The Olympic Games are outside the sphere of the Assembly’s devolved powers, but we hope that the Assembly Government will protest strongly at such a condescending colonial attitude towards our national football governing body.”

 

A spokesman for the Welsh FA said: “If that were what he said, clearly it would be disappointing.”

 

In July, Coe was made an honorary fellow of Uwic, the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff.