Why are French prosecutors looking into the awarding of the 2021 world athletics championships to Eugene?
In some ways, it would be a surprise if they weren’t. French prosecutors have already arrested the former IAAF president Lamine Diack, who was succeeded by Sebastian Coe in August, as well as the former IAAF legal adviser Habib Cissé and the former head of the IAAF’s anti-doping unit Gabriel Dollé, who left in mysterious circumstances at the beginning of the year. They have also said that Papa Massata Diack, the son of Lamine and who was an IAAF marketing consultant but is believed to be in Senegal, will be arrested if he enters France. Their investigation is linked to allegations that payments were made to cover up positive drug tests but is also believed to have expanded to include other aspects of Diack’s 18-year tenure as the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
What does that have to do with the award of the world championships to Eugene?
It was Diack, together with the IAAF’s former general secretary Essar Gabriel, who suddenly decided to put the decision to award the championships to Eugene, which had previously narrowly lost out to Doha for the 2019 competition, to a vote without a bidding contest. As Coe has since revealed, amid the furore over his email exchanges with a Nike executive over the issue, the original plan was to have a standard bidding process in 2016. The decision instead to unilaterally award the championships to Eugene enraged potential rival bidders from Gothenburg. Bjorn Eriksson, a retired civil servant who was the president of Interpol from 1994 to 1996 before being appointed head of the proposed Gothenburg bid, claimed they were repeatedly promised by Diack that they would be given a chance to present their case. He said the decision to award the championships to Eugene was “unethical and immoral” and called on the French police to look into Diack’s role. On Thursday, a spokesman confirmed: “At this point, no conclusions can be drawn. We considered that there are elements that merit being checked out.” It would be a surprise if they weren’t also looking into the award of other major championships – including Doha’s victory in 2019 – and contracts during Diack’s tenure, particularly over the last four years.
What did Diack say at the time?
When challenged on his decision to shortcircuit the bidding process in August, Diack said: “Blame it on an old president on the eve of his departure who wanted to take this opportunity to give this opportunity to the United States.” It has also been pointed out, most recently by Coe on Thursday, that the decision to award a major championships without a bidding process was not without precedent.
What is Coe’s position in all of this?
Coe, an IAAF vice-president under Diack since 2007, headed the evaluation commission for the 2019 race, narrowly won by Doha ahead of Eugene. He was later one of the IAAF council members who voted by a large majority to approve Diack’s plan to give the championships to Eugene without a vote. It was presented as an unmissable opportunity to stage the sport’s biggest showcase in the US for the first time.
How is it linked with his former Nike role?
The BBC unearthed an email last month from a senior Nike executive to the leader of the Eugene bid in which he said he had discussed the issue with Coe, who at the time was an IAAF vice-president and also had a £100,000 ambassadorial role with the US sportswear giant. Coe had told him that Eugene should bid again. However, Coe said he did not give any advice to Eugene that he had not given to other bidders and insisted he had not actively lobbied on behalf of the city, which is where Nike was founded and is 100 miles from its current home in Portland. Amid the other challenges facing the IAAF, including the Russian state sponsored doping crisis and the French probe into corruption at the highest levels, Coe said the “noise” surrounding his Nike links had become too much of a distraction and so he last month reluctantly relinquished his ambassadorial role.
Is the French criminal probe the only ongoing investigation?
Far from it. The second part of Dick Pound’s independent report, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency following reports of systemic state-sponsored doping in Russia that had been covered up by IAAF officials, is due to be published in mid-January. It will focus on those elements that relate to wrongdoing by the IAAF that could not be made public in November because of ongoing police investigations. Meanwhile, four individuals – including Papa Massata Diack and Dollé – will next week appear before an IAAF independent ethics committee hearing in London concerning the Russian doping allegations made public by the German broadcaster ARD 12 months ago. The US Anti-Doping Agency is also continuing its probe into allegations of doping against Mo Farah’s coach Alberto Salazar and the Nike Oregon Project in Portland. Salazar has vehemently denied the allegations.
