Lord Coe hits out at BBC over ‘judgment’ on crowds

Lord Coe has criticised the BBC and presenter Gabby Logan for making “judgments” about poor crowds at the World Championships.

The IAAF president said the sport was wrongly being portrayed by people in the BBC studio who may then “clear off back to Match of the Day”.

Poor crowds at the Khalifa International Stadium have been a major talking point, with the air, sea and land blockade on Qatar from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt partially blamed.

The countries have cut diplomatic and trade ties with Doha, claiming it was too close to Iran.

Former Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis also said on the BBC the IAAF had let athletes down by coming to Qatar but Coe wants critics to see the bigger picture.

“It’s very easy to sit there and make all sorts of Gabby Logan-type judgements over three or four days and clear off back to Match of the Day,” he said.

“But it’s really important that we see the long-term development of our sport. That’s not going to be done because we have challenges over ticketing in a stadium for three days.

“The problem I’ve got with that is it’s the way our sport is being portrayed by some of the people in that (BBC) studio.

“I’ve got people, whose judgement I do trust who are saying it would be great if a one minute 42.4 second run and some great performances were being dissected.

“It’s (the crowd) an easier subject to talk about rather than some of the more insightful stuff around the events. I accept that, that’s the world we live in.

“We’re not heading for home on this, we will go on making sure people realise wherever they are in the world this sport is theirs.”

Lord Coe was critical of BBC “judgement”.