Coe 'strongly refutes' allegations

IAAF president Sebastian Coe has rebuffed claims he enlisted the help of the disgraced Papa Massata Diack in his leadership bid and had prior knowledge of allegations of corruption and doping within athletics.

A BBC Panorama investigation, broadcast on Thursday, made claims that Massata Diack, who has been banned for life by the IAAF and is wanted by Interpol in relation to a corruption investigation, secured votes for Coe ahead of last year's IAAF presidential election, which the Briton won.

In addition, the BBC alleges it has seen evidence that Coe received an email detailing corruption and doping allegations four months before the information was first brought to light in a documentary on German television station ARD.

Coe has always maintained he was not aware of specific allegations prior to the broadcast.

He was also not personally caught up in any of the alleged wrongdoing surrounding the IAAF doping and corruption scandal.

In response to Thursday's documentary, a statement from the IAAF read: "Two broad allegations have been made by the BBC. Both are based on flawed assumptions that IAAF President Sebastian Coe strongly refutes."

Addressing the claim Coe was aware of corruption and doping allegations prior to the ARD documentary, it added: "The Ethics Commission [as it then was] was deliberately established as a quasi-judicial body to investigate all allegations of corruption and breaches of the IAAF Rules. It is independent of the IAAF.

"Seb Coe was forwarded a number of emails and information regarding allegations of corruption and concerning the behaviour of certain individuals. All of this material was sent by him to the Ethics Commission whose remit is to investigate such matters and then to pass judgement. Seb Coe was subsequently contacted by the Ethics Commission to say they were already aware of the allegations and the matters were all being actively investigated and he therefore, left them to do so.

"Seb has never denied hearing rumours about corruption. In fact he has said on many occasions that when alerted to rumours he asked people to pass them on to the Ethics Commission to be investigated.

"He did receive an email from Dave Bedford that said 'The attachments relate to an issue that is being investigated by the IAAF EC (Michael Beloff)'. This was enough for Seb Coe to forward the email to the Ethics Commission. He did not feel it was necessary to read the attachments.

"You may think this shows a lack of curiosity. He, and we, would argue that it shows a full duty of care. Ensuring the right people in the right place were aware of allegations and were investigating them."

The IAAF statement continued: "The second allegation is that there is 'electronic evidence' that Seb Coe enlisted the services of Papa Massata Diack for campaign advice ahead of the IAAF presidential election in August 2015.

"The suggestion that Seb Coe was actively seeking Papa Massata Diack's advice about his campaign is wrong. As with any campaign, lots of people offer advice - wanted or not, some helpful, some not. You try to be civil but wary. This was the case with Mr Diack.

"He sent messages of support while at the same time supporting other candidates and accusing Seb Coe of leading a British media campaign against both him and his father.

"Despite requests to the BBC for sight of the 'electronic evidence' so suitable responses can be given, they have not been seen."

The IAAF is set to announce on Friday whether Russian athletes will be permitted to compete in the Rio Olympics, following the doping scandal that was uncovered last year.