The chairman of UK Athletics insists London has nothing to hide over its successful bid for the 2017 world championships and has promised to provide all emails, documents and phone records to investigators.
French police and the IAAF are investigating the bidding processes involved in seven world championships since 2009, including the 2017 event which is to be hosted by London after it beat Doha in the vote.
UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner has welcomed news of the investigations and said all documents plus computer and phone records connected to London’s bid would be made available to investigators.
He said: “All I know is that London’s bid was completely by the book and through the front door in a classically British way. We have nothing to hide and we would be delighted to spend any amount of time going through our processes with the investigators if that helps root out any miscreants.”
Asked if he would be prepared to make all emails and documents available, he said: “Absolutely.” He added: “It’s right that these things are fair battles and the right city wins for the good of the sport and nothing more. There has been a very unhealthy smell at FIFA with some of football’s World Cup bids and now it appears there may be some of that stench with some IAAF world championships – and that is very unpleasant.”
The investigation is expected to focus on any involvement of former IAAF president Lamine Diack, who was succeeded by Lord Coe in August, and his son Papa Massata Diack – who was employed by the IAAF as a marketing consultant.
WADA independent commission stated on Thursday that Diack junior “held a contract to exploit marketing opportunities in emerging markets” including Brazil, Russia, India, China, UAE, Qatar, South Korea, Mexico, Africa and the Caribbean.
Investigators are likely to probe any links between the Diacks and bidding cities from those countries – Daegu in Korea hosted 2011, Moscow 2013, Beijing 2015 and Doha are to be 2019 hosts after losing out to London for 2017.
