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Scathing WADA Report Details IAAF Corruption, Russian Doping Scandal

"It started with the President of the organization. It involved the Treasurer of the organization. It involved the personal counsel of the President, acting on instructions of the President."

The World Anti-Doping Association Independent Commission today released the second part of its report on the 11-month investigation into the Russian doping scandal and the role of the International Association of Athletics Federations, the world governing body for track and field. A German documentarian first broke the story in late 2014, prompting WADA's investigation. Part 1 of the report was released in November 2015, and Russian Athletics has since been suspended from competition by the IAAF.

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Today's revelations include scathing details about the depth of corruption at the IAAF, much of which has to do with the organization's former president Lamine Diack, who has already been banned for life by the IAAF, and his two sons. The report also includes details of a cover-up at the IAAF—it's clear the organization was aware of what was happening in Russia—and is critical of the IAAF's overall "organizational failure."

"The corruption that occurred within the IAAF was not at the level of some foreign currency trader in a bank carrying out unauthorized transactions, without the knowledge or permission of the responsible bank officers," writes Dick Pound, the former president of WADA and the author of the report. "Here, it started with the President of the organization. It involved the Treasurer of the organization. It involved the personal counsel of the President, acting on instructions of the President. It involved two of the sons of the President. It involved the director of the Medical and Anti-Doping department of the IAAF. The corruption was embedded in the organization. It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own. The IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility. Continued denial will simply make it more difficult to make genuine progress."

A number of criminal offenses were detailed by Richard McLaren, an Independent Commission member, in a press conference in Germany this afternoon:

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  • The information in the report "clearly indicates that the disruption of the Federation emanated from the very top, the President, Lamine Diack."
  • Lamine Diack appointed his own legal adviser, a man by the name of Habib Cissé, to the IAAF Medical and Anti-Doping department in November 2011, just prior to the Moscow 2011 Championships and the London 2012 Olympics.
  • Diack appointed Cissé "to manage and follow up Russian athlete biological passport cases," which was "intended to achieve … manipulation and delay" of Russian anti-doping cases. As a result of Cisse's actions, some athletes remained active rather than facing suspensions.
  • During this time, Cissé put together a list of 23 doped Russian athletes, known as the "List of 23." He used this list to extort money from at least one Russian athlete, from which payments flowed to "IAAF consultants, and the legal adviser Cissé, and perhaps employees of the IAAF."
  • The report found that Gabriel Dollé, the director of the Medical and Anti-Doping Department, was complicit in Cissé's actions.
  • Cissé and Gabriel's work was the formation of what McLaren called an "informal governance process operating outside the proper governance process of the organization. That informal, illegitimate governance process was enhanced and enlarged by the sons of the president, Papa Massata Diack and Khalil Diak."
  • This governance group also engaged in athlete extortion.
  • Members of the group may have also engaged in corruption regarding sponsorship rights and the selection of tournament host cities.
  • WADA believes it may have only discovered "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to athlete extortion, and recommends further investigation.
  • WADA has alerted Interpol to the above. Interpol then turned the investigation over to the French police, who are now carrying out a criminal investigation.

In today's press conference, much of the Q&A period was taken up by questions regarding current IAAF President Sebastian Coe's continued role with the IAAF. Coe was a vice-president during the Diack administration. Dick Pound, WADA's lead investigator, said that he remained supportive of Coe. Pound also did not believe it would be prudent to tear down the IAAF and rebuild it from the ground up.

"I would rather take an existing organization that's been around for a hundred and some odd years and bring it up to date," said Pound. "Don't throw it out for the sake of throwing it out and starting all over again. Think about the organizational problems of doing that. It's a little bit like what's facing FIFA. Can they put that Humpty Dumpty back together again? But I don't think the IAAF problems are quite as bad as that."

"Just to clarify that," a reporter responded, "because many people have said it's a worse scandal than FIFA. You believe this is not as bad?"

"From an organizational sense, no," Pound said. "What troubles the commission most of all is that some of this corruption actually affects the outcomes of competitions. It's not just a bunch of people sitting around passing money to each other. That's the most troubling thing about the IAAF, but that's something that can be taken in hand by a resolute, new administration."