Coe, whose IAAF role is unpaid, also announced on Thursday he would end his 38-year paid association with sportswear company Nike after widespread claims that it represented a conflict of interest, whih he denied.
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Mr. Coe said his decision to part ways with Nike was a part of an effort to renew trust in IAAF’s leadership.
Russian Federation was temporarily banned over allegations of state-sponsored doping made in a report by an independent commission established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Council agreed a process for the reallocation of the two IAAF World Athletics Series competitions – 2016 World Race Walking Team Championships (Cheboksary, RUS) and 2016 World Junior Championships (Kazan, RUS) – which have been removed from Russian Federation due to ARAF’s suspension.
Coe reportedly discussed Eugene’s bidding for the 2021 IAAF World Championships with Nike officials, according to BBC’s Mark Daly.
“IAAF council were today informed that written confirmation was received yesterday from ARAF accepting their full suspension without requesting a hearing”, an IAAF statement read. Sent in January 2015 from Craig Masback, a marketing executive for Nike, to the owners of a track and field venue in Eugene called Track Town USA, the e-mail implies that Coe, referred to as “Seb”, had been in touch about the 2021 championship. The Nike issue has been haunting Coe since he was elected at the IAAF congress in Beijing, questioned about it in his first news conference.
Coe also said he had made the decision before the release of the Nike email this week but wanted to wait to meet his Council colleagues face-to-face before announcing the decision.
There have been allegations of corruption and cover-ups at the IAAF too, with Diack being investigated over an alleged payment of more than €1m to cover up doping offences by Russian athletes.
But asked whether he believed the Nike deal represented a conflict of interests, he replied: “No, I don’t believe it was a conflict of interest”.
“We touched upon the Russian federation’s situation and also noted their acceptance of the full suspension and agreement that the inspection team… will finalise the verification criteria for ARAF to be reinstated and we will do that with WADA”, Coe said after the council meeting.
“But it does have to start with making sure that we have an organization that is fit for goal and can deliver the services that it needs to, and can maintain and rebuild the reputation that clearly has been hit very hard in the last few weeks”.
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Nike’s headquarters in OR is situated close to the city of Eugene.
