(Reuters) – Athletics’ governing body the IAAF has rejected claims by the BBC that its president Sebastian Coe misled a British government probe into doping and that he was helped in his presidential campaign by the son of his predecessor in the position.
The BBC’s Panorama programme had said Coe was aware of the detailed allegations of corruption within the IAAF before they became public and did not disclose it when he sat before a British Parliamentary Committee.
The programme also claimed Coe had been guided in his presidential campaign by former IAAF marketing official Papa Massata Diack, son of former president Lamine Diack, both of whom are subject to a corruption investigation by French prosecutors.
“Two broad allegations have been made by the BBC. Both are based on flawed assumptions that President Coe strongly refutes,” the IAAF said in a statement yesterday.
The statement accepted that Coe was sent a number of emails regarding allegations of corruption, as the BBC claimed, but said he did not read them and that he left them for the IAAF ethics commission to consider.
“Seb has never denied hearing rumours about corruption. In fact he has said on many occasions that when alerted to rumours he asked people to pass them on to the ethics commission to be investigated,” the IAAF said.
