Corruption-hit IAAF adopts Coe's reforms

Yahoo – AFP, Luke Phillips, Dec 3, 2016

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) chief Sebastian Coe
 speaks to the media during a IAAF council meeting in Monaco, on December 1,
2016 (AFP Photo/Valery Hache)

Monaco (AFP) - The IAAF on Saturday unanimously adopted a reform package drawn up by president Sebastian Coe in a bid to end "grotesque" corruption that has rocked track and field's governing body.

In a Special Congress in Monaco, 182 member federations voted for the reforms, with 10 against and five invalid votes. Some 197 of the IAAF's 213 member federations were present for the vote, the result of which was a major boost for Coe.

"Let me thank you for the confidence that you have shown the Council today in the reform proposals that you have agreed to. This is a very important moment in the history of our sport," said Coe.

Coe's reforms, with a nod to disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack's abuse of the presidency, include stripping himself of some powers, with the president and IAAF Council not allowed to serve more than 12 years and with more checks put in place.

"Too much power rested in the hands of too few people," Coe said.

The reforms also push for gender balance, handing athletes a greater voice and crucially establishing an independent integrity unit that would manage all anti-doping matters and be responsible for greater intelligence gathering.

"We're putting in place a framework that should have been there years ago," Coe said, telling members that they should all feel "violated" given the amount of money that had been siphoned off instead of having been "used for the development of athletics."

"It's bad enough that any of this happened, but it cannot happen for a second time, not on our watch, not anyone else's watch.

"Let's not beat around the bush, our sport, our family, is under threat. Sitting out the fight is not an option."

Since Coe took office in August 2015, the IAAF has been mired in the fall-out from the presidency of Diack, at the centre of a corruption scandal in which several former senior IAAF officials were found to have bribed Russian athletes in return for keeping quiet over positive doping tests.

Coe admitted that the reforms had not been to everyone's taste, all the while praising the "civilised discourse" and the "clarity and honesty of dialogue".

"The fundamental principles, I believe, have broad support," said the Briton, a two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist.

"On gender balance, a number of areas told me they needed more time - you've got it.

"I want checks and balances in place... I don't want to be in an office choosing carpets and signing off expenses.

"I would not ask for change if I didn't think we needed it."

Bold stance

Coe's bold stance on gender equality envisages the 26-member Council transitioning to half-men, half-women by 2023. At the 2019 Council election, he wants a minimum of nine of each gender elected including two vice-presidents of each gender.

Indicative of the ground shift that will entail was that just three of the representatives of the 42 member federations who addressed the Congress before the vote were women, notably women's world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe representing Britain and also including representatives from the Cook Islands and the Turks and Caicos.

"We have to put these changes in," said Radcliffe. "There is only one choice, there isn't time to delay and talk about this, we need to act now to save our sport."

Notably voting against the reforms was Saudi Arabia while Qatar, the host of the 2019 World Athletics Championships and 2022 Football World Cup, voted for.

Abstainers included Lamine Diack's Senegal, vice-president Sergey Bubka's Ukraine and track powerhouses Jamaica, despite Usain Bolt picking up a record sixth IAAF Athlete of the Year award on Friday and throwing his weight behind Coe.

"I know that Seb Coe is trying to make track and field more transparent to everyone so they can see what shape it is in and to make sure there is not one person fully in control," said Bolt.

"That's a bold move from him as IAAF president.

"That's also helped the sport to make people more confident and to trust the sport more."

Corruption 'embedded' in world athletics, says doping body

Yahoo – AFP, Damien Stroka, 14 January 2016

Athletics' governing council must have been aware of the corruption scandal, 

according to a new report by the World Anti-Doping Agency (AFP Photo/Gabriel Bouys)

Munich (Germany) (AFP) - A World Anti-Doping Agency report said Thursday that corruption was "embedded" at the world athletics body, piling pressure on its new leader Sebastian Coe.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) must have known about corruption orchestrated by its former leader Lamine Diack, and about doping in Russia, it claimed.

But Richard Pound, the former WADA president who wrote the report, backed Coe as the best person to lead reforms of the world body.

Despite that support Pound still produced a litany of accusations against the IAAF.

It was not tough enough with "several countries" including Russia, the report said, indicating that doping scandals were not limited to Russia.

Veteran Senegalese powerbroker Diack faces criminal charges in France over allegations that he took more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in bribes from Russian athletes and officials to cover up failed drug tests.

"The corruption was embedded in the organisation," Pound said in a damning comment on the IAAF's handling of drug abuse.

Pound said there was a "complete breakdown of governance structures and lack of accountability" at the IAAF.

"It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own," he said of the corruption.

Pound said the the IAAF governing council, which included Coe, had to be aware of the corruption.

Graphic on doping methods banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

(AFP Photo/Adrian Leung/John Saeki)

Pound backs Coe

"The IAAF Council could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics and the non-enforcement of applicable anti-doping rules," Pound said.

Former British running legend Coe, who took over the IAAF leadership in August when Diack stood down, sat in the audience as the report was presented.

And when asked about reforms to the world body, Pound said: "As far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain at the head of the IAAF, I think it's a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize this opportunity and under strong leadership to move forward out of this.

"There's an enormous amount of reputational recovery to do here and, descending to personalities, I can't think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that. So all our fingers are crossed in that respect."

Coe later told AFP: "The journey back to trust will take far longer and will be a painful process."

He added: "We can't sit here begging for trust. We have to show by every action that we take that we earn that trust.

"Many of the recommendations that are contained in the report today we will look at them very, very closely and when we think we can and we should absorb them into our own reform process, we will."

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission chairman Dick 

Pound attends a press conference in Unterschleissheim, southern Germany, 

on January 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Lukas Barth)

Interpol wanted notice

The first part of Pound's report, released in November said there was a "state-sponsored" doping system in Russia, which has since been suspended by the IAAF.

The new report said Diack had told a lawyer he would need to make a deal with Russia's President Vladimir Putin to ensure nine Russian athletes accused of doping would not compete at the 2013 world championships in Moscow.

The report told of a sudden increase from $6 million to $25 million for Russian rights to televise the 2013 world championships. This was provided by a Russian bank.

Diack handpicked a lawyer to handle Russian doping cases even though he had little experience with anti-doping measures, the report added.

Richard McLaren, a lawyer who was part of the investigation commission, said that Diack's advisor Habib Cisse deliberately held up sending warning notices to Russia about drug failures.

He said the extortion "went beyond sporting corruption and may have been criminal in nature".

Cisse is facing charges in France along with his former boss, Diack's son Papa Massata Diack and Gabriel Dolle, the former IAAF anti-doping doctor.

Interpol on Thursday said it had issued a wanted notice for Papa Massata Diack.

Sebastian Coe was appointed president of the International Association of 

Athletics Federation (IAAF) in 2015 (AFP Photo/Lukas Barth)

According to McLaren, Cisse and Papa Massata Diack put up a "formidable barrier to the effective operation" of the IAAF's efforts to clamp down on doping.

Several IAAF staff have said they sought to draw attention to the doping abuses to leaders but were ignored.

"There was an evident lack of political appetite within the IAAF to confront Russia with the full extent of its known and suspected doping activities," the Pound report said.

Coe has insisted he knew nothing about the corruption and that there was no cover up even though internal IAAF correspondence indicates athletics leaders expressed concern about problems in Russia as far back as 2009.

Pound warned that Kenya "clearly" also had a doping problem but that he had only had a mandate to investigate Russia.

IAAF orders life bans over Russia doping bribes

Yahoo – AFP, Frédéric Bourigault, 7 January 2016

Valentin Balakhnichev, then president of the All-Russia Athletics Federation, waves
the IAAF flag during a handover ceremony at the end of the final day of the World
Championships in Daegu on September 4, 2011 (AFP Photo/Kim Jae-Hwan)

Paris (AFP) - IAAF judges on Thursday banned for life former Russia athletics chief Valentin Balakhnichev and a son of former world body president Lamine Diack over the blackmailing of athletes who failed doping tests.

The ethics commission also ordered a life ban against former Russian walking coach Alexei Melnikov and a five year suspension for former world body anti-doping doctor Gabriel Dolle.

The panel found that the four "conspired to extort what were in substance bribes from the athlete by acts of blackmail."

"Any lesser sanction would not meet the gravity of their offences," the commission added in announcing the bans.

"The life bans announced today could not send a stronger message that those who attempt to corrupt or subvert the sport of athletics will be brought to justice," said International Association of Athletics Federations president Sebastian Coe.

Papa Massata Diack, Balakhnichev and Melnikov also face fines of between $15,000-$25,000 (13,800-23,000 euros).

Papa Massata Diack and his father Lamine Diack, who stepped down as IAAF president in August, and Balakhnichev are all under investigation by French police over hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to cover up doping offences.

Lamine Diack is alleged to have received one million euros ($1.1 million) alone. His son acted as a marketing consultant to the IAAF until forced to stand down over the scandals.

The IAAF ethics commission looked into charges that Russian runner Liliya Shobukhova, who won the 2012 London Olympics women's marathon, paid more than $600,000 to have her doping violations covered up so she could compete at the Olympics.

Melnikov, former national long distance walkers coach, is said to have acted as an intermediary between athletes and Balakhnichev, who was also the IAAF treasurer, and Diack.

Dolle, who like Diack and his father comes from Senegal, played a smaller role in the coverup.

According to the testimony, some 300,000 euros ($325,000) was paid back to Shobukhova through a Singapore company Black Tidings in 2014 in a bid to obtain her silence over the bribes.

But Shobukhova turned whistleblower for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which has been investigating widespread doping in Russian support.

According to the IAAF report, Balakhnichev has given information that at least five other Russian athletes had given cash to cover up doping offences.

Balakhnichev alleged that he had been "blackmailed" by the IAAF and that the system was orchestrated by the world body president's son and Habib Cisse, a former lawyer for the president.

Russia has been suspended by the IAAF and now faces a race against time to be readmitted for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August.

Balakhnichev said the ban was a "clearly politicised decision".

"Certain forces are trying to increase the pressure on Russian sport by taking such a radical decision," he told Russia's state-run TASS news agency.

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the R-Sport agency however that the "decision was expected and there is no sense in appealing".

Shobukhova is now serving a reduced ban for her doping failures. Her Olympic title has been stripped from her. At the peak of her career she was earning $1.5 million a year, the ethics commission report said.

"The (2014) repayment was to be a quid pro quo for her acceptance of sanction," the IAAF report said.

WADA is to release a new report on doping in athletics on January 14 which is expected to implicate new countries.

Coe said that the IAAF was still helping the French criminal investigation and WADA's independent commission.

The IAAF, which has faced accusations of taking a lax attitude to doping, said it was "angered" by the bribery case and insisted the four no longer have any link to the world body.

"The IAAF is reassured that the panel of the ethics board has seen no evidence implicating any other members of the IAAF Anti-Doping Department," it said in a statement.

IAAF deputy general secretary steps aside over leaked email

Yahoo – AFP, 22 December 2015

Nick Davies, deputy general secretary of the IAAF, pictured on November 9,
2015, steps down from his role (AFP Photo/Adrian Dennis)

Paris (AFP) - The IAAF's deputy general secretary Nick Davies confirmed on Tuesday that he has stepped down from his role pending an investigation into a plot to delay the naming of Russian drug cheats.

"I have decided to step aside from my role with the IAAF until such time as the Ethics Board is able to review the matter properly and decide if I am responsible for any breach of the IAAF Code of Ethics," Davies said in a statement released by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

French newspaper Le Monde and the BBC reported on Monday that Davies had discussed the plan in an email sent before the 2013 Moscow World Championships to Papa Massata Diack, who worked as an IAAF marketing consultant at the time and is the son of former IAAF president Lamine Diack.

"What has become apparent today is that I have become the story," added Davies, who is the closest aide to current IAAF president Sebastian Coe.

"In order to demonstrate that I am willing to have all allegations of unethical behaviour on my part in 2013 properly and fairly investigated I have referred my emails to Papa Massata Diack in 2013, my statements and the circumstances of the emails to the IAAF Ethics Board."

Le Monde and the BBC reported on Monday that, in the email, which was sent just weeks before the 2013 World Championships, Davies wrote he needed to sit down with the anti-doping team to discuss "Russian skeletons in the cupboard".

Davies stressed in the email that any Russians already caught cheating "should NOT" be in the Russian team in Moscow and that this should be made clear to Valentin Balakhnichev, then president of the Russian athletics federation and IAAF treasurer.

"If the guilty ones are not competing, then we might as well wait until the event is over to announce them," Davies said according to the report.

"Or, we announce one or two BUT AT SAME TIME as athletes from other countries.

"Also, we can prepare a special dossier on IAAF testing which will show that one of reasons why these Russian athletes come up positive is that they get tested a lot!!!"

Last month, Russia was provisionally suspended from track and field over accusations of "state-sponsored" doping as the IAAF scrambled to salvage the sport's credibility just nine months out from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Lamine Diack resigned from his position on the International Olympic Committee in November after being charged with corruption, money laundering and conspiracy.

On Monday the 82-year-old Senegalese was hit with new corruption charges linked to doping cover-ups in world athletics, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.

Lamine Diack served as head of the IAAF for 16 years until August, when he was succeeded by Coe.

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IAAF president Coe steps down from Nike role

Yahoo – AFP, Luke Phillips, 26 Nov 2015

A photo taken on August 30, 2015 shows IAAF president Sebastian Coe at the 2015
 IAAF World Championships at the "Bird's Nest" National Stadium in Beijing (AFP Photo/
Greg Baker)

Monaco (AFP) - IAAF president Sebastian Coe bowed to intense pressure and announced Thursday that he had stepped down from his paid role as an ambassador for Nike to focus more on cleaning up world track and field's beleaguered governing body.

"It is clear that perception and reality have become horribly mangled," said Coe after an IAAF Council meeting.

"I've stepped down from my ambassadorial role with Nike, which dates back 38 years.

"The current noise level around this ambassadorial role is not good for the IAAF and it is not good for Nike, and frankly it is a distraction to the 18-hour days I and our teams are working to steady the ship."

Coe also announced he would step down from his role as chairman of the British Olympic Committee after the Rio Olympics and said a multinational sports marketing company he heads up, CSM, would "not tender for nor directly work for the IAAF or any city in relation to their tender to the IAAF while I am president of the IAAF".

Coe, unpaid as head of track and field's world governing body, received around £100,000 (142,000 euros) a year for his global ambassadorial role for Oregon-based Nike.

The Briton, a two-time Olympic gold 1500m medallist, is accused of lobbying disgraced predecessor Lamine Diack to hand Eugene the 2021 world championships.

Bjorn Eriksson, who led a rival bid by Gothenburg for the 2021 championships, said Coe telephoned him on Wednesday to say it had been wrong to give the event to Eugene without a formal bidding process, The Times reported.

Coe insisted, however, that he had not been responsible for the decision that was made in April.

"I don't believe it was a conflict of interest," Coe stressed.

The decision to step down from Nike "was purely on the need to focus on challenges ahead with my colleagues and particularly the executive teams here at (IAAF) headquarters", he said.

"The issues that I've been dealing with in the last few weeks, the reform of the organisation, the challenges faced by the organisation across two or three fronts, needs an unflinching focus and the 'noises off' are frankly a distraction and I can see that.

"The decision I chose to take in the last few weeks was one that I think reflected my absolute intention to focus as long and as hard as I can on steadying the ship that has been rocking rather badly recently."

Coe added, however, that he had sought advice from the IAAF Ethics Commission, who said the Briton could have continued in his Nike role as long as he "continually and consistently declared all my interests" and did not participate in any decisions involving the company when it came to working with the IAAF.

Eriksson also said Coe had indicated that the Eugene award was being investigated by French police as part of a corruption inquiry into the IAAF leadership of Diack, who stood down in August.

Diack is also under investigation over allegations that he took bribes from Russian officials to cover up positive drug tests by athletes.

"If I understand Sebastian Coe correctly, he said, 'I agree that the procedure wasn't correct', but he claims he wasn't involved in this, others are," Eriksson said.

Coe had been a strong supporter of Eugene's bid for the 2021 championships and was part of the IAAF council that voted this year to abandon the normal bidding process.

Nike, which was founded in Eugene, was also a powerful backer of the bid.

And the BBC said Tuesday it had seen an email in which a Nike executive said Coe had assured him he would "reach out" to Diack on behalf of Eugene.

Coe insisted that action would be taken should there be anything shown to be out of order with bids not only for Eugene but also the world championships in Doha in 2017.

"In our own internal reviews, the criminal investigations that are currently ongoing... or any of the recommendations or conclusions from the independent commission report to WADA, if any of those show or conclude impropriety, then action will be taken," Coe warned.

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