Former IAAF president Lamine Diack dropped his support for Turkish city Istanbul after it did not pay sponsorship money of up to $5million to the Diamond League or athletics’ world governing body, according to a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) independent commission (IC).
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At a press conference on Thursday, Pound endorsed Diack’s successor, Sebastian Coe, and urged the IAAF to “seize this opportunity and under strong leadership move forward”.
“The issue here is that there weren’t sufficient checks and balances to ensure that what was happening in that department of the organisation – which I think Seb Coe described as hermetically sealed – there weren’t the checks and balances in place to make sure that that part of the organisation was functioning properly”, Jones said. “So all out fingers are crossed in that respect”. The anti-doping system run by Sport Ireland is credible, comprehensive and stands up to the highest scrutiny, as are the majority of national federations programmes, but it’s important that any doubts around other countries testing procedures are thoroughly investigated.
When asked if the IAAF remained in denial over the current revelations, Pound said: “Yes, of course there was cover-up and delay and all sorts of things”. According to the report released today, there was no “appetite” within the IAAF to challenge Russia over its systemic doping, and back in 2013 Diack told the IAAF’s counsel that the situation could only be resolved by his buddy, Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But Pound said he believes Coe had “not the faintest idea of the extent” of Diack’s alleged corruption when he took power. Only Coe’s recent reluctance to accept that the IAAF was mired in deep trouble brought criticism from Pound. The report says one of Diack’s lawyers was involved in an extortion scheme against Russian marathoner Liliya Shobukhova, who paid more than $500,000 to have a doping case covered up, then got reimbursed after she was banned despite the bribe.
“I don’t think it was a huge surprise that we were concerned about Russia”, Coe said on Thursday.
Other IAAF leaders must also have been aware of the scale of doping in Russian Federation but did nothing to stop it, the WADA panel’s damning report said.
Canadian Richard Pound, center, Chairman of WADA’s (World Anti-Doping Agency) Independent Commission (IC), answers questions after he presented the findings of his Commission’s Report surrounding allegations of doping in sport, during a press conference in Munich, Germany, on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. “Further inquires will be necessary to see what financial flows took place and their links”.
The highly-critical report revealed corruption and a conspiracy to cover up doping by Russian athletes coordinated by Mr Diack while he was IAAF president.
Diack is already under formal investigation in France on suspicion of corruption and money laundering linked to the concealment of positive drug tests in concert with Russian officials and the blackmailing of the athletes to allow them to continue to compete.
– Coe has performed a U-turn and acknowledged that there was an IAAF cover-up, but maintains he was personally unaware of any corruption and has vowed there can be no repeat of such a “horror show”.
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The group allegedly collaborated in its operations with Valentin Balakhnichev, the Russian athletics president who was banned for life from the sport last week.
