IAAF president Coe steps down from Nike role

International Amateur Athletics Federation president Sebastian Coe has announced he is to step down from his ambassadorial role with sportwear company Nike.

Asked whether he now accepted his Nike role represented a conflict of interest Coe told Sky Sports News HQ: “No I don’t, but it’s clear that reality and perception were getting badly tangled here”.

Coe had come under increasing pressure to end his long-standing association with Nike, with his role believed to be worth around £100,000 a year.

Eugene is close to Nike’s OR headquarters and was awarded the championships earlier this year, without a formal bidding process – when Coe’s predecessor, Lamine Diack, was still president.

Eugene, USA, was given the event without a bidding process, despite interest from the Swedish city of Gothenburg.

Mr Coe also described the ongoing “noise” surrounding his position as a distraction, which is “not good for Nike or the IAAF”.

Coe, who became head of the ruling body of world athletics in August, has been associated with Nike for almost 40 years but has repeatedly rejected such accusations.

President, Sebastian Coe, has stepped down from his paid role as an ambassador for Nike.

“I felt that I needed to be able to focus unflinchingly on the challenges ahead”, he added, saying it was his “absolute intention to focus as long and as hard as I can on steadying the ship”.

The Nike issue has been haunting Coe since he was elected at the IAAF congress in Beijing, questioned about it in his first news conference.

French prosecutors are investigating allegations that Diack, his sons and others at the IAAF were involved in corruption and money-laundering and an alleged blackmail scheme that squeezed bribes from athletes in return for promises to hide their positive doping tests. He denied a conflict of interest, has said frequently he has been open about it, and also said Thursday that the IAAF ethics committee has also not objected.

Coe insisted, however, that he had not been responsible for the decision that was made in April.

For Russian track and field athletes to compete again, their athletics federation – ARAF – must demonstrate that it has permanently dismantled the “deeply rooted culture of cheating” identified by the WADA commission.