Hajo Seppelt may not be household name in the world of journalism, but that may be about to change after his blockbuster expose on systematic doping in Russian sport shook the very foundations of athletics and sent shockwaves across the sporting world.
In this technology driven era where “breaking news” comes thick and fast and it takes a sharp mind to distinguish fact from fiction, Seppelt has blazed a trail of excellence in the true traditions of hardcore investigative reporting that will no doubt do journalism a world of good.
When the German reporter first brought the latest doping scandal to light a year ago, current IAAF president Sebastian Coe declared the allegations as “a war on my sport”. Yesterday, however, Dick Pound, the former head of the anti-doping Agency WADA finally paid tribute to his “very fine” investigative journalism and the brave Russian whistleblowers who had exposed a deeply embedded culture of bribery, extortion and cheating.
Extolling the virtues of serious journalism is not the purpose of this editorial, however. Instead, it is our endeavour to express outrage and frustration at the way large scale fraud in sport has been mainstreamed over the past few years, with seemingly incorrupt officials finding themselves in the dock for selling their souls and the public’s trust for hard cash.
Lamine Diack, the former head of the IAAF, from whom Coe took over earlier this year, is said to have personally received bribes in excess of a million euros to look the other way as Russian athletes doped their way to glory.
Unfortunately for the 82-year-old who was IAAF president from 1999 to mid-2015, French authorities have launched a criminal investigation into his activities after an independent report commissioned by WADA pretty much confirmed what Seppelt had exposed a year ago.
“This is going to be a real game-changer for sport,” said the report’s co-author Richard McLaren.
“You potentially have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets through extortion and bribes.”
The International Olympic Committee called evidence of a deeply embedded, wide-ranging, state sponsored doping culture within Russian athletics “deeply shocking” and “very saddening”.
The last couple of decades have been very troubling for honest sports fans. The problems with football’s governing body FIFA under the now-suspended Sepp Blatter are all too well known to be repeated here.
Now, even a highly-respected man like Franz Beckenbauer is facing flak over his alleged role in buying votes for Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid in 2000. German magazine Spiegel revealed that a $7.2mn payment was made to purchase the votes of some members of the FIFA executive committee. As the bid leader and later the chairman of the organising committee, Beckenbauer is now under the investigative spotlight as German authorities probe the scandal.
In cricket, the less said the better. Several match-fixing scandals have surfaced over the years with some top and emerging stars falling prey to the menace. The International Cricket Council (ICC) has come up with several stringent measures to curb corruption, but even its former chief N Srinivasan is being investigated for his role in several scams, including betting in IPL matches.
The latest WADA report has been described as the tip of the iceberg. If that is indeed the case, then sports fans surely will see some dark days ahead.