IAAF president Seb Coe to investigate fresh bribery claims

Damian Spellman 23:32 17/01/2016
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  • Lord Coe.

    The city was named as host for the championships in 2011 after beating off the challenge of Qatari capital Doha.

    Ed Warner, chairman of UK Athletics, last week insisted London had nothing to hide over its bid amid the ongoing IAAF scandal currently being investigated by French prosecutors. However, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme Sunday, Warner revealed that his team had agreed to spend $7.2million to cover prize money having been warned they were unlikely to succeed if they did not, and that they were told “brown envelopes” were being handed to members of the IAAF Council.

    Warner said: “On the morning of the bid, council members of the IAAF and senior people at the IAAF were telling us that we were behind, and we were behind because the Qataris had promised to pay the 7.2m-dollar prize fund for the athlete prize money which otherwise the IAAF itself would have to pay. They were saying to us, ‘Look, you have got to match that offer’.”

    Former IAAF president Lamine Diack has already been questioned by the investigators in France, who also want to talk to his son, Papa Massata, named by Warner as being at the centre of rumours which emerged the night before the bidding process came to a head.

    He said: “The night before the bid, a very senior person in the IAAF hierarchy told me and my bid team that they understood that certain members of the IAAF Council were being called upstairs one by one to a hotel suite to be given a brown envelope. Frankly, it seemed incredible to me at the time and so I dismissed it. But subsequently, we have heard that Papa Diack, Lamine Diack’s son, apparently was asking for 5million dollars from Qatar to support their bid.”

    Qatar has denied any wrongdoing in its bids for either the 2017 championships or the 2019 championships, which they will host.

    When asked if he was aware of the claims, Coe said he was not, but promised to look into them.

    He said: “The French prosecutors are looking at this. I have already implemented a review of our financial, our marketing and our sponsorship arrangements within the IAAF, so if anything comes out of that nature, then clearly all those bids will be called in.”

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