when Coe explained to the French justice the choices of London, Doha and Eugene

Published on : 09/10/2019 – 19:11

Paris (AFP)

IAAF President Sebastian Coe defended his votes for the controversial allocation in London and then in Doha for the last World Athletics Championships, according to his hearing in the investigation into suspicions of bribes from Qatar, which AFP has seen.

During this hearing as a witness, revealed Tuesday by L'Equipe, Coe, also questioned about the attribution of the next Worlds-2021 in Eugene (Oregon), cradle of the Nike equipment manufacturer of which he was the ambassador, made a promise: "if the proof is brought that candidatures could be obtained by corruption I would be ready to return on these decisions".

"Publicly I did not support any candidature but I voted for Doha (in 2014) .You are the only ones to know that I voted for Doha", declared, May 25, 2018, before two prosecutors of the national parquet floor financier (PNF), the double Olympic champion of 1,500 meters.

"The Middle East was a booming market supported by a desire to globalize sport," said the then head of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) Evaluation Committee for the award.

He assured that he then ignored all of the two installments in 2011 for a total of $ 3.5 million from Oryx Qatar Sports Investment Company (Oryx QSI) in favor of a Papa Massata Diack company, the son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack. Justice is investigating suspicions of corruption related to the Doha bid to organize the Worlds in 2017, finally awarded to London, the capital of Qatar with the 2019 edition.

– Unusual procedure –

In this investigation, PSG boss Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who was co-shareholder of Oryx QSI with his brother Khalid, was indicted for active bribery in May.

For prosecutors, the fact that the British capital can first override Doha "suggests that the benefits gained from London were even more advantageous." "Absolutely not," London was chosen for its infrastructure, replied Coe.

"There is a moment for an application to become a good candidate," he added, to explain that Qatar will then be chosen for 2019, to the detriment of Eugene, in November 2014. The city of Oregon is then designated for 2021 by a vote of the IAAF Council in April 2015 without a candidacy review procedure, and despite the interest of Gothenburg (Sweden). At the time, Lamine Diack was still president of the IAAF.

"The world championship (never) was in the US and for our commercial health we had to be in the US market," said Sebastian Coe, who became president in the summer of 2015, and re-elected in September.

On several occasions, Coe replied that he did not know if any promises had been made by the US candidacy to the IAAF or Lamine Diack. What role did Nike play? "I do not know, I'll say it like that: + very little +".

However, he confirmed the content of an email sent on 30 January 2015 by a manager of Nike, Craig Masback, to the boss of the American bid, Vin Lananna, in which the first assured the second of the support of Seb Coe in Eugene .

© 2019 AFP