IAAF Face Investigation for Eugene Hosting 2021 World Athletics Championships
French authorities have opened an investigation into the International Association of Athletics Federation's decision to hand the 2021 World Athletics Championship to the U.S. city of Eugene, Oregon. The decision was made without the usual bidding process.
It is but the latest in a long line of investigations into the IAAF, which has been hit by numerous scandals in recent times.
As reported by BBC Sport's Mark Daly and Calum McKay, French investigators have been looking into former IAAF president Lamine Diack and have now turned their attention to the 2021 World Athletics Championships. Eugene is the birthplace of sportswear giant Nike, which formerly had current president Lord Coe on its payroll.
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Several emails have reportedly been uncovered highlighting Coe's support for Eugene's bid and ongoing talks between him and Nike executive Craig Masback.
Diack reportedly told Coe that there would be no vote on a site for the event during an April meeting of the IAAF, only to turn around and hold the vote, handing the event to Eugene at said meeting without a preliminary bidding process.
According to the Associated Press (h/t the Guardian), cities have been handed the rights to host the World Athletics Championships without a bidding process before, but it's highly irregular.
The issue at hand isn't whether Eugene would be suited to host such an event or not. As explained by Jason Henderson of Athletics Weekly, it most certainly is:
But Nike could stand to benefit greatly from the event being hosted in Eugene, and the question is whether its involvement presents a conflict of interest for Coe, who reluctantly stepped down from his role as an ambassador for Nike two days after the BBC published the email sent by Masback, according to Daly.
Per Daly, Diack and his legal adviser have already been arrested, and his son is also wanted for questioning. Diack is alleged to have pocketed over €1 million in covering up suspected doping of Russian athletes.
Coe has been questioned by the French investigators and vehemently denied that his previous role with Nike was a conflict of interest when the process to award the event to Eugene took place. The IAAF ethics committee reportedly invited him to keep his role as ambassador with Nike, but Coe refused.
According to Daly, he later said: "The current noise level around it is not good for Nike or the IAAF."
The IAAF previously made headlines for ongoing investigations from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and its own ethics committee amid allegations that the organization allowed widespread doping abuse for years, according to Daly.
For Nike, the news presents yet another unwelcome PR storm, just months after the company was named in the ongoing FIFA corruption investigation, per the Guardian's Jamie Doward.
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