Life Bans for Athletics Consultant, Officials over Doping Cover-up
The son of ex-world athletics chief, Lamine Diack, is one of three senior figures given life bans from the sport.
Papa Massata Diack, a former consultant for the IAAF, and Russian officials Valentin Balakhnichev and Alexei Melnikov were last month charged with multiple breaches of anti-doping rules.
Gabriel Dolle, the governing body's former anti-doping director, has been banned for five years.
The IAAF said lesser sanctions would not meet the gravity of their offences.
Diack and Balakhnichev, a former Russian athletic federation president and IAAF treasurer, face fines of £17,000 while Russian coach Melnikov could be fined £10,000.
They had been charged in relation to the payment of about £435,000 that marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova allegedly made to have her doping violations covered up.
"The head of a national federation, the senior coach of a major national team and a marketing consultant for the IAAF conspired together (and, it may yet be proven with others too) to conceal for more than three years anti-doping violations by an athlete at what appeared to be the highest pinnacle of her sport," the IAAF's ethics commission's findings state.
"All three compounded the vice of what they did by conspiring to extort what were in substance bribes from Liliya Shobukhova by acts of blackmail.
"They acted dishonestly and corruptly and did unprec- edented damage to the sport of track and field which, by their actions, they have brought into serious disrepute."
Shobukhova's 38-month ban from track and field was reduced by seven months after she turned whistleblower for the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).
Russia have been banned from international athletics competition after a report by Wada's independent commission alleged the country was guilty of "state-sponsored doping". Nigeria's football coaches have commended the management of Help The Talent Academy, HTT Academy, for exposing them to the basics and fundamental of coaching young football players.
HTT academy recently organised a seminar/ training for football coaches in Lagos, which was geared at providing them the needed support in their quest to groom youngsters in their academics.
A group of coaches, who spoke on the seminar, thanked the academy's management for exposing them to modern football techniques through an experienced football coach, Chris McGinn from the United Kingdom.
Elesho, who trains young football players in Adamo, Ikorodu, said he had acquired new skills that would enhance him to groom young football players to become one of Nigeria's future stars.
The academy, which is a development of Shaggy Football Club, has been responsible for developing many successful footballers, who now play for various international teams in Europe.
Since its inception in 2001, the academy had made stars such as Kabiru Akinshola, who played in the La Liga, Akeem Agbetu, who plays in France and many more.
The coaching clinic, according to the academy director, Samuel Ojo, is to expose participants, who were delighted to be part of the exercise, to the technical knowledge on how to train their players, enhance creative abilities and making good decisions on the pitch.
Ojo, stressed that he had been discussing with representatives of some English Premier league football coaches, who have expertise in training young football players and are expected to arrive Nigeria early this year for the second phase.
The seminar/ coaching tagged Level One coaching course would help the academy to achieve its set objective of transforming football academies in Nigeria for the better as it plans is to have centres spread across the five regions of Lagos State, Ikeja, Badagry, Ikorodu, Lagos Island and Epe.
According to him, Africa as a continent is blessed with young talented football players but there is urgent need to introduce them to the fundamental and basics of football to align with the modern techniques of football as the academy's priority is to be face of African football to Europe and other parts of the world.
Not losing the focus of Helping The Talents, Ojo, explained that plans are in top gear to attract spirited sports philanthropists to adopt super outstanding young players from the academy, who would have access to quality football kits and the opportunity of traveling for international exposure as it would give them a guaranteed future.
He said the academy had a solid structure, as there was a comprehensive data of all the academy's players, which gives them the opportunity to provide a profile of each of their players unlike other academies that lack administrative qualities to establish an academy.
He said the goal of the academy is to take young, skilled children in sports, train and develop them to their full potential, adding that the academy's primary aim is to help deprived children from the less fortunate parts of Africa and those that are growing up in difficultly in different parts of the world.
He stressed that the academy would work hard to make the kids from being a burden and become an asset to their families and be of great influence even to their society in the near future.
He added that the less privileged children would get the opportunity to live a normal life away from their hardship. But most importantly have a chance to turn their talent to success, stressing that Help The Talent Academy ultimately works to provide an exciting, educational, fun and safe sports focus experience for the children, with their success being the primary ambition.
McGinn at the first phase of the coaches Seminar/training said "we'll look at where there strengths are, where they have expertise that can be valid and useful and really important to other players. "