Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- The International Olympic Committee set aside US$800 million on Thursday for loans and payments arising from the pandemic that forced the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to be postponed, Japan Times reported.

It is still unclear how big the total postponement bill will be with Olympic organizers and public authorities in Japan facing extra costs estimated to run into billions of dollars.

IOC President Thomas Bach, spoke via teleconference following an online meeting of the IOC's executive board, the first since the opening date for the Tokyo Games was rescheduled for July 23, 2021. He said the board discussed the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic and how it was affecting the Tokyo Olympics in terms of costs, as well as how it may impact Olympics in the future once the current crisis passes.

"Nobody knows what the world looks like tomorrow," Bach said. "You can't put a number on something you don't know is going to happen."

A sum of US$150 million will be available to make loans to sports governing bodies and more than 200 eligible national Olympic committees. They have cash flow issues while unable to organize events and were due to get payments this year for the Tokyo Games.

The loan program is being run with Switzerland’s federal government, which announced aid Wednesday for Olympic sports federations based in the country. The IOC will put up half the money for those loans, and federal and state authorities will provide 25 percent each.

A detailed breakdown of how the remaining US$650 million could be allocated will be formulated in the months ahead, IOC Chief Operating Officer Lana Haddad said.

"It is a little too early to pull together all known and unknown costs,” Haddad told reporters on a conference call after an IOC board meeting held remotely.