Ex-IAAF chief suspected of taking bribes

Papa Massata Diack, a former consultant to the sport’s governing body, was charged with various alleged breaches of the IAAF’s Code of Ethics, Michael Beloff said in a statement.

“Where there are fragilities in the system that may have allowed extortion, no matter how unsuccessful, we will strengthen them”, he added.

Telegraph Sport has learnt that an independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) will propose action is taken against institutions complicit in the blackmail of dope cheats when it presents its findings in Geneva.

Worldwide sports lawyer and law professor at Western University, Richard McLaren, is one of three WADA independent commissioners who has co-authored the report, and the one who made that FIFA/IOC comparison.

“Every doping case now being investigated by WADA was first identified by the IAAF through its athlete biological passport (ABP) programme”, said Coe in the statement.

Unlike Federation Internationale de Football Association where you have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets, here you potentially have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets – through extortion and bribes – but also caused significant changes to actual results and final standings of global athletics competitions. “What is certain is that Mr. Cisse, the legal adviser to Mr. Diack, traveled to Russia and gave to the Russian federation the list of Russian athletes suspected of doping and, in exchange for sums of money, these athletes weren’t sanctioned”. “However we will rightly still honour the outstanding achievements of the sport’s athletes”.

“We will continue to lead the fight against drugs in sport on behalf of all clean athletes”, he said.

Coe, who was elected president in August, also denied again that the governing body of athletics had been complacent in its handling of doping cases, as alleged by the Sunday Times and German broadcaster ARD. “Those that are caught will be thoroughly investigated and the guilty will face the fullest sanctions available”.

“The investigations will have to determine the origins of these sums”, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said, confirming an earlier media report.

“We didn’t arrest Mr. Diack’s son because he didn’t come to Paris when he was meant to”.

Lamine Diack’s family dismissed what it called the “excessive and insignificant accusations” and the acting head of the Russian athletics federation said Russia had nothing to fear from the latest scandal to rock world athletics.