Athletics "sank further into turmoil" Thursday morning as a new report into the doping scandal concluded that corruption was "embedded in the organisation" and that its leadership -- including IAAF President Sebastian Coe -- must have been aware of the extent of the rule-breaking "that has brought the sport to its knees," according to Sam Munnery of the LONDON TIMES.
The WADA report, which has been leaked before its scheduled release, "also claims that Lamine Diack, Coe’s predecessor as IAAF president, said he would have to cut a deal with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, to ensure Russian athletes accused of doping did not compete at the 2013 world championships in Moscow." Dick Pound, the report’s author, strongly criticized the IAAF council, "of which Coe was a part even before his election to the top job in August, saying that those running athletics had to have known that doping regulations were not being enforced."
Pound had promised a "wow" factor in the second part of his investigation into the scandal and Thursday’s report "carries several explosive revelations."
Pound said that the IAAF must restructure to ensure corruption cannot go unchecked, adding that the corruption "cannot be blamed on a small number of miscreants."
The report said, "The corruption was embedded in the organization. It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own." In addition to the "deal-making friendship forged between Putin and then-IAAF President Diack," the report details a sudden increase from $6M to $25M for Russian rights to televise the '13 world championships provided by a Russian bank, "and also tells of a lawyer who was handpicked by Diack to handle Russian cases even though he had little experience with anti-doping measures." The report details a '12 meeting at a Moscow hotel involving a Russian TV advisor, Papa Massata Diack, Lamine Diack's lawyer Habib Cisse and Valentin Balakhnichev, the Russian athletics federation head, who was also honorary treasurer of the IAAF. The meeting was set to resolve a "problem" with the $6M price tag for the Russian TV rights to the following year’s world championships.
After the meeting, Papa Massata Diack "had an arrangement with a leading Russian bank" worth $25M (LONDON TIMES, 1/14).
'FAILURES OF GOVERNANCE': REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann wrote Pound found that Lamine Diack, a Senegalese who stepped down last year after 16 years leading the IAAF, was "responsible for organizing and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place in the IAAF." Pound said that he appeared to have personal knowledge of fraud and extortion of athletes carried out by the "informal, illegitimate governance structure" that he had put in place. Thursday's report said the IAAF's governing council "could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics and the non-enforcement of applicable anti-doping rules." It said,
"It is increasingly clear that far more IAAF staff knew about the problems than has currently been acknowledged. The corruption was embedded in the organization. It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own."
Among the failures of governance listed by the report "were the employment of Diack's two sons Papa Massata and Khalil as consultants and Lamine Diack's ability to divert the handling of Russian doping cases" to Cisse. The report's co-author, Professor Richard McLaren, "made clear that it had by no means offered a full account of the scandal." At a news conference he said, "We may have only examined the tip of the iceberg in respect to athletes who may have been extorted."
Russia Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko "was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying Russia understood its share of the responsibility in the doping scandal."
But he was also quoted by the R-Sport news agency as saying, "This document is mainly about corruption in the IAAF, it does not particularly concern Russia" (REUTERS, 1/14). In N.Y., Rebecca R. Ruiz wrote the investigation’s second report "shifted attention from Russia to the ruling body overseeing the sport globally." Top officials, the inquiry found, were "complicit in keeping tainted athletes in competition, extorting money from athletes and delaying the processing of drug test violations."
Unlike Russian coaches, trainers, doctors and the state police -- whom the commission accused of actively destroying drug samples -- IAAF officials "did not erase records but rather delayed processing them, expecting that inaction might make matters go away, the inquiry found." Because of the systemic nature of the corruption, the report suggested Coe "would likely have been aware of the alleged criminal behavior." Coe "denied any knowledge of nefarious activity" at the IAAF. In taking questions at Thursday's news conference, Pound "found himself in the curious position" of both seeming to implicate Coe but also defending him. Pound said, "Giving an opinion as to whether he lied or not, I'd say he didn't lie." Pound repeatedly attributed the allegations to an "institutional failure" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/14).
THE PRESSURE'S ON: The London TELEGRAPH reported Coe "is facing renewed pressure on his position as IAAF president." Coe "was in the audience as Pound presented his findings, and will at least have been heartened to hear Pound claim that he is still the best person to lead reforms of the world body." When asked about reforms to the world body, Pound said, "As far as the ability of Lord Coe to remain at the head of the IAAF, I think it's a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize this opportunity and under strong leadership to move forward out of this. There's an enormous amount of reputational recovery to do here and, descending to personalities, I can't think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that. So all our fingers are crossed in that respect" (TELEGRAPH, 1/14). In London, Rick Broadbent opined Coe "will be forced to answer increasingly testing questions" about how much he knew about Russian doping after the first details of the WADA report into corruption emerged. It "will be a horribly uncomfortable defence and will make or break his presidency of the IAAF."
The report claimed that the IAAF Council "could not have been unaware about the scale of doping and non-enforcement of rules."
That "is a damning allegation." Talk of a deal with Putin, a "remarkable hike in Russian television rights and the failure to pursue a string of doping cases will take an ailing sport to the tipping point." Any attempt by Coe, who became IAAF president in August, to pass the buck to the previous regime "will have an empty ring about it," and Jon Snow’s "asleep on the job or corrupt?" question "is fast becoming a mantra for a scandal." Coe has "remained defiant" throughout this scandal, saying he has never thought about resigning and even claiming Snow’s questions were "formulaic." There is "evidently no smoking gun" in the WADA report, "but the hole has got a good deal deeper" (LONDON TIMES, 1/14).
SPAIN TO INVESTIGATE: MARCA reported the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency (AEPSAD) announced after the publishing of WADA's report that it intends to "carry out a detailed study of all the facts, conclusions and recommendations contributed, especially any evidence of violations of anti-doping regulations by Spanish athletes." AEPSAD offered its "congratulations to WADA's Independent Committee for the work done in recent months in defense of the rights of athletes who compete legally" (MARCA, 1/14).
