IAAF President Sebastian Coe denied knowing that "bribes were being offered or received" in relation to the award of the 2017 World Athletics Championships after it was claimed that he passed on rumors of "brown envelopes," according to Owen Gibson of the London GUARDIAN.
After the London Daily Mail reported it was Coe to whom UK Athletics Chair Ed Warner was referring when he said this month that a "senior IAAF official" had passed on claims of impropriety by the Doha bid, a spokesperson for Coe "moved to try to clarify his position." The IAAF spokesperson said, "Sebastian Coe had no actual knowledge of bribes being offered or received linked to the 2017 World Championships. As he and Ed Warner discussed on 5 Live Sportsweek there was rumor piled upon rumor in the days leading up to the bid as is often the case on these occasions." Challenged on Sportsweek by Garry Richardson, Warner acknowledged it was a "rumor of a rumor." But when Coe was then asked on the same program whether he had heard the story before, he said, "No, I haven’t. But Ed is right. Whenever you’re in a bidding process ... every sport has their rumor, rumor piled upon rumor" (GUARDIAN, 1/28). REUTERS' Toby Davis wrote Warner "appeared before a British parliamentary committee on Tuesday but declined to identify who had told him about the alleged bribes, saying it would be inappropriate to do so before speaking to the IAAF's ethics commission."
The Daily Mail reported that "two witnesses linked to the London 2017 bid team had told the paper that ahead of the vote in Monaco in November 2011 they heard Coe warn UK Athletics officials of rumors of corruption by the Doha bid, which was immediately denied by an IAAF spokesman" (REUTERS, 1/28). The BBC reported Coe "has repeatedly denied he knew about major corruption within athletics during his time as IAAF vice-president." Coe "led London's final presentation bid before it beat Doha in a 2011 vote for the right to host the 2017 championships" (BBC, 1/28).
COE FACES QUESTIONS: In London, Ben Rumsby wrote two members of the U.K. Culture, Media & Sport select committee want Coe "to reappear at parliament following allegations he was aware of bribery rumours before the vote that saw London awarded next year’s athletics World Championships."
Conservative MP Damian Collins and the SNP’s John Nicolson revealed "they were keen to determine whether the president" was the "very senior" official Warner claims warned him of rumors about "brown envelopes." Collins said, "He’s got questions he has to answer to the committee and I would certainly support him coming back, but that’s a decision the committee has to take" (TELEGRAPH, 1/30).
