Corruption was ‘embedded’ in IAAF
World Anti-Doping Agency report blames ‘powerful rogue group’ within athletics’ governing body
>> MUNICH: Track and field’s governing body was corrupted from the inside by a “powerful rogue group’’ led by its president, and they conspired to extort athletes and allow doping Russians to continue competing, a World Anti-Doping Agency probe reported on Thursday.
Other IAAF leaders were at fault, too, the Wada panel’s damning report said. They must have known of the nepotism that allowed Lamine Diack to turn the International Association of Athletics Federations into a personal fiefdom during his 16-year reign as president, it said.
“It is increasingly clear that far more IAAF staff knew about the problems than has currently been acknowledged,’’ said the report, written by former Wada president Dick Pound and presented at a news conference in Munich.
A key question raised by the report is whether alleged corruption under Diack went beyond extorting doped athletes and infected other areas of IAAF business. Wada’s investigators called for a detailed follow-up probe of all world championships awarded by the ruling body for 2009-19, due to evidence they found of possible wrongdoing. That included an indication that Diack, a former IOC member, was prepared to sell his vote in the 2020 Olympic hosting contest won by Tokyo in exchange for sponsorship of IAAF events.
The report made further uncomfortable reading for Sebastian Coe, the British middle-distance running great who took over from Diack in August. Coe was in the audience as Pound sifted through the grim findings and asserted that the IAAF remains an organisation in denial.
“The corruption was embedded in the organisation. It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on its own,’’ the report said.
Coe is not accused of wrongdoing. But, as an IAAF vice president under Diack, he was part of its Council, its oversight body, that took a hammering from the investigators’ report. The Council “could not have been unaware of the extent of doping’’ and the breaking of anti-doping rules and “could not have been unaware of the level of nepotism’’ under Diack, it said.
“It is not credible that elected officials were unaware of the situation affecting ... athletics in Russia. If, therefore, the circle of knowledge was so extensive why was nothing done? Quite obviously there was no appetite on the part of the IAAF to challenge Russia.’’
With a “close inner circle’’ including two of his sons, Papa Massata and Khalil, and his personal legal counsel, Habib Cisse, Diack led an “informal illegitimate’’ government that took over the handling of Russian doping cases, opening the door for athletes to then be blackmailed, the report said.
Diack “was responsible for organising and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place,’’ the report said. “He sanctioned and appears to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes.’’
Installing Diack’s sons as IAAF consultants “helped to conceal their clandestine corruption,’’ it added.
Diack also “inserted’’ his lawyer, Cisse, “into the day-to-day operations’’ of the anti-doping department’s work on Russia. That gave the lawyer access to sensitive information about which Russian athletes were suspected of doping, based on their blood testing results.
That information became “the fundamental building block for the corruption and conspiracy that subsequently consumed the IAAF,’’ the report said.
Working with then-IAAF antidoping director Gabriel Dolle, they deliberately stalled cases of suspected Russian dopers, and “their actions allowed dirty Russian athletes to compete and alter the results on the playing field. This conduct has the same effect as a cover-up,’’ the report charged.
Cisse, the lawyer, called the investigation “unfair.’’ Speaking to The Associated Press, he said the commission never questioned him or allowed him to contest any of its findings before publication.
“There’s no presumption of innocence,’’ he said.
Lamine Diack was taken into custody by French authorities in November on corruption and money-laundering charges. He is suspected of taking more than €1 million (US$1.1 million) to blackmail athletes and cover up positive tests.
French authorities last month also issued an arrest warrant for Papa Massata Diack that was relayed by Interpol and posted on Thursday as a wanted notice on the police organisation’s website.
Cisse and Dolle also are under investigation i n France for suspected corruption.
A contrite Coe later thanked Pound for the hard-hitting findings.
“The whole sorry saga is about cover-up,’’ Coe said. The Wada probe’s findings, he added, will help the IAAF with the “very complex, deeply painful process’’ of recovering.
But Pound backed Coe to stay at the helm of the IAAF, saying he was the best man to lead the organisation out of the crisis and restore its credibility.
“As far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain as 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,’’ Pound said. “There’s enormous amount of reputational recovery that has to occur here and I can’t ... think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that.’’