MONACO, Nov 26 IAAF president Sebastian Coe quit his ambassadorial role with sportswear company Nike on Thursday, finally succumbing to weeks of pressure over a potential conflict of interest.
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Yet while he maintained there was no conflict of interest at an IAAF news conference in Monaco on Thursday, Coe did reveal he had opted to walk away from his duties with Nike, in addition to his position with sports marketing agency CSM.
“It is clear in that perception and reality have become horribly mangled”, he stated.
Coe’s role with Nike was described as an worldwide advisor and an ambassador for the “Designed to Move ” campaign, which aims to tackle the global inactivity epidemic.
He had defended his role with Nike as recently as Sunday, saying he didn’t lobby on behalf of the company regarding IAAF’s April decision to award the 2021 world championships to the city of Eugene, Ore., where Nike was founded.
“I have stepped down from my ambassadorial role with Nike”.
Coe, a two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist for Britain, was in no doubt that the transformation of the IAAF and athletics, the Olympic’s main sport, would take some time.
Athletics superpower Russian Federation will definitely miss the world indoor championships in Portland, in the United States, in March but Coe would not be drawn on the country’s prospects of being allowed back in time for the August Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Sebastian Coe has admitted that the procedure used by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) when awarding the 2021 world championships to the American city of Eugene was flawed.
He added: “I haven’t made this decision because of the email emerging…I was asked about the status of where (the bidding) process was”.
The BBC reported Wednesday it had uncovered e-mails which showed Coe, then an IAAF vice-president, backed Eugene and had spoken to his predecessor, Lamine Diack, about their bid.
When he is trying to clean up perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in sport it is, at best, a distraction.
Coe denied he had specifically lobbied in favour of Eugene, merely that he had encouraged them to try again given their losing bid for 2019.
But the issue is not just about what Coe said to whom, or his right to earn a living, but how it appears. Frankie Fredericks, the chairman of the IAAF’s athletes’ commission, said: “The athletes’ commission would want somebody at the helm – especially after what Seb has given up – to be paid, to get remunerated, to make sure that he gives a professional job for the sake of the athletes”.
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The IAAF said in a statement that it had received a confirmation letter the previous day in which ARAF general secretary Mikhail Butoc said: “We recognize suspension without a hearing”.
