IAAF president Sebastian Coe addresses a press conference in Monaco yesterday. (AFP)

Monte Carlo: Sebastian Coe said yesterday he will step down as ambassador for sports goods makers Nike because it harms the ruling athletics body IAAF he presides over since August.  Coe told a news conference after an IAAF council meeting that “I have stepped down from my ambassadorial role with Nike. The current noise level around this role is not good for the IAAF, and for Nike.”
Coe has come under fire over the role over allegations of conflict of interest in connection with the awarding of the 2021 world championships to Eugene, Oregon, without a bidding process in April.
The BBC reported Wednesday it had uncovered e-mails which showed Coe, then an IAAF vice-president, backed Eugene and had spoken to his predecessor, Lamine Diack, about their bid. Eugene, which lost out to Doha in bidding for the 2019 event, is closely associated with Nike.
Coe denied he had specifically lobbied in favour of Eugene, merely that he had encouraged them to try again given their losing bid for 2019. He said he also encouraged Gothenburg, Sweden, to bid for 2021.
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. 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, 59, said the decision also had to do with his intention to “steadying the ship that has been rocking rather badly recently,” a reference to various doping affairs and corruption allegations. The statements came after a council meeting where the Russian federation ARAF waived its right to a hearing and accepted a full suspension in connection with a major doping affair. The IAAF said it received “written confirmation ... from ARAF accepting their full suspension without requesting a hearing as was their constitutional right.”
It attached the according letter from ARAF general secretary Mikhail Butov which said: “We recognise (the) suspension without a hearing.”
The ARAF was provisionally suspended on November 13 in the wake of a report from a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commission which spoke of systematic doping and cover-ups of positive doping tests in the country. The nation’s anti-doping agency RUSADA was also suspended. The affair also reaches out to the IAAF as Diack is under criminal investigation in France over suspected corruption in connection with covered up positive tests, and council member Stephanie Hightower said “our entire system has failed athletes.”
The council approved an integrity unit which is to look at various aspects from anti-doping to manipulation, and also looked at major changes within the IAAF.
Coe said “there was not one person who underestimated the challenge in tackling the sport’s problems and rebuilding trust.”