Sebastian Coe has denied lobbying for the American city of Eugene in its bid to host the 2021 World athletics Championships.
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However, the leader of Gothenburg’s bid and the former head of Interpol, Bjorn Eriksson, has since called for a full investigation and Coe’s role in the eventual decision.
“I would very much like to hear how could this be explained”.
Despite the IAAF and Coe fighting rearguard action, the questions are unlikely to go away and such a backdrop is the last thing the IAAF needs as it attempts to deal with arguably the worst doping crisis in the sport’s history.
“It smells and it has to be investigated. That’s for the sport, for everybody involved”, he said. Nike is not an official sponsor of the event but the global sports giant has its headquarters based in nearby Beaverton, Ore.
Eugene is situated in OR, the state closely associated with sportswear brand Nike.
The BBC has uncovered emails suggesting Seb Coe vouched for the USA and had bid-related discussions with Nike.
Collins wrote on Twitter: “Seb Coe should end his job with Nike if he is to continue as president of the IAAF”.
“The perception of conflicts of interests is too great”.
Diack is being investigated over allegations he received payments to defer sanctions against Russian drug cheats.
However, Eriksson claimed that he had been personally assured by both Coe and Diack – who was arrested this month on suspicion of bribery and corruption – that Gothenburg would get a chance to bid for 2021.
Diack later announced the award of the 2021 championships in April, catching many by surprise.
The then president of the worldwide Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack, supported the idea of giving Eugene hosting rights. “After their narrow defeat for the 2019 championships, I encouraged them to re-enter another bidding cycle as they had a strong bid”.
“The situation was unusual but not unprecedented”.
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Coe said that Diack had made a convincing “political and financial” case for taking the event to Eugene, but he added: “The process for bidding is already being reviewed as part of a wide range of reforms now being prepared”.
