Eugene 2021 Worlds Bid Being Investigated by French Police as Part of Corruption Enquiry Into Lamine Diack

by LetsRun.com
November 28, 2015

With the Thanksgiving holiday we missed this news tidbit.

The Times of London reported on Wednesday that Bjorn Eriksson, who would have led a Gothenburg, Sweden bid for the 2021 Worlds if it wasn’t given to Eugene without a bidding process, said that Lord Seb Coe, the new president of the IAAF, not only called him and told him that “the procedure wasn’t correct” to give Worlds to Eugene without a bid, but that Eugene winning worlds was being investigated by French police as part of the corruption enquiry into Lamine Diack.

Lamine Diack in 2010

Earlier in the month, it was widely reported that Diack is being investigated by French authorities over allegations that he took bribes from Russian officials to cover up positive drug tests by athletes. The former head of anti-doping Gabriel Dollé and Diack’s son, Papa Massata Diack, have been placed under investigation as well. There also have been reports Papa Diack solicited a $5 million bribe in conjunction with Doha’s 2017 Worlds bid.

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This is the first we have heard that French police were looking into the Eugene Worlds bid as part of the Lamine Diack investigation. It makes sense to look into all of Lamine Diack’s decisions and everything the IAAF did under his tenure.

More: Times of London Story (behind a paywall)
*AFP Recap of Times of London

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