http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/34765444

Gosh, that would be quite a move.

Athletes paying anti-doping officials to supply drugs? The IAAF being paid to hush up results? Cycling looks pretty clean next to that.

edit: Labratory involved faced: ‘Direct intimidation & interference by the Russian state’

You put a paper chasing, ineffectual “spy” in charge of the country – an apparatchik of an unregulated, unmonitored secret service and for some reason the country turns to cack.

Well, it’s beyond me how that happened.

Dark days for Russia. Sad days for proud Russians.

It added that there was “no reason to believe athletics is the only sport in Russia to have been affected”.

Given Katusha and Astana it may be cycling doesn’t get off lightly either

Astana are registered in Kazakhstan.

Wonder whether the average Russian sees this and thinks:

a) “That rings true, I wouldn’t put it past them the dirty cheating gits”

b) “Typical stirring from a Western controlled agency trying to discredit honest Russian sportspeople and officials”

State sponsored and approved doping – The Russian Sports Minister is alleged to have ordered samples to be manipulated, is a FIFA exec member and leads their World Cup Organising committee.
That the IAAF and FIFA could manage to ‘overlook/hide’ the wrong doings exposed of late is pretty staggering.

Put in will just send the ‘troops’ and annexe Brazil next summer.

Wonder whether the average Russian sees this and thinks:
a) “That rings true, I wouldn’t put it past them the dirty cheating gits”
b) “Typical stirring from a Western controlled agency trying to discredit honest Russian sportspeople and officials”

Both.

Wonder whether the average Russian sees this and thinks:

a) “That rings true, I wouldn’t put it past them the dirty cheating gits”

b) “Typical stirring from a Western controlled agency trying to discredit honest Russian sportspeople and officials”

i would venture c)

“yeah they probably cheated. But so did Lance Armstrong and all those Jamaican sprinters and they don’t ban those countries…” etc etc etc

I’m struggling to see how Coe can take the moral high ground here when he was the vice President at the time, but it seems to have come as a complete surprise.

Oh well at least with Lord Coe in charge we’ll get to the bottom of it 🙄 As not only does he refuse to give up his relationship with Nike, but he is a big fan of both dodgy Salazar and corrupt Diack.

Athletic is as bad a mess as cycling was under HV & LA, the whole thing is dodgy as ****.

If all this was happening on his watch then he’s certainly got some serious explaining to do.

I’ve never been a fan of Coe and his whiter than white image that he projects. He just seems too polished for my tastes.

Its been said by many that cycling couldnt have been the only sport where doping had/has been rife. Its about time the IAAF, IOC and others had their blinkers removed. It will be interesting to hear which high profile athletes get investigated and are proven to be cheats. I bet there are a few out there bricking themselves.

I’m not surprised that the “cold war” attitude still apparently prevails in Russia (as per Dick Pound’s quote in answer to a question….) now, the big question is just how rotten athletics and other sports are. I believe that almost every elite athlete (in any sport) sails as close to the wind as they can – Radcliffe, Wiggins, Froome, Hamilton, Murray etc I’m looking at you….

I think its safe to assume that every sport is up to it’s neck in doping, the more money the sport makes, the higher up the chain coverups and kickbacks go.

Coe is either wilfully ignorant or complicit, it worked for Rebekah Brooks after all!
Im sure he wouldnt want the london olympic bid scrutinised too closely either

Russia will brush it off as a deliberate attempt to besmirch their good name, smug as Putin with a puppy that its too late to take the 2018 world cup back off them too

Is anybody actually surprised by this?

I’m not, all sports have been riddled with drugs, have been for decades and will continue to be so for decades to come.

I’m struggling to see how Coe can take the moral high ground here when he was the vice President at the time, but it seems to have come as a complete surprise.

He seemed to think it’s all the media’s fault. Wonder if he’ll change his tune…

When asked about the possibility of kicking Russia out of international competitions, Lord Coe told BBC Radio 5 live’s Sportsweek on Sunday that his instinct was “engagement rather than isolation”.

so that’s no then…

Russia should be banned once every other country has been similarly scrutinised so that they can all be treated equally.

If you ever want to know how FIFA, IAAF etc. became so corrupt then it’s worth looking into the history of Horst Dassler and even though he died in the late 80’s his influence is still huge. For instance John Boulter one of his right hand men was hired as a consultant on the London 2012 bid.

Its been said by many that cycling couldnt have been the only sport where doping had/has been rife. Its about time the IAAF, IOC and others had their blinkers removed. It will be interesting to hear which high profile athletes get investigated and are proven to be cheats. I bet there are a few out there bricking themselves.

Operación Puerto had Spanish football teams and some individual tennis players in its sights, before the investigation was killed by the Powers That Be.

(Nadal, FC Barcelona, Madrid)

Russia should be banned once every other country has been similarly scrutinised

Starting with Kenya…

An ex-athlete (missed the name) on radio 5 live has just said that ‘Athletics is like banking, it’s too big to fail’. They really should get some perspective, it’s a bunch of people taking drugs so they can run faster. I think people will get over it.

I suspect if the russian sports minister is involved in covering up that sets the bar quite high in the international corruption league

I suspect if the russian sports minister is involved in covering up that sets the bar quite high in the international corruption league

been going on for decades in weight lifting, whole teams have failed drug tests for the same drugs and still come back 2 years later.

dragon – Member
Oh well at least with Lord Coe in charge we’ll get to the bottom of it As not only does he refuse to give up his relationship with Nike, but he is a big fan of both dodgy Salazar and corrupt Diack.

Athletic is as bad a mess as cycling was under HV & LA, the whole thing is dodgy as ****.
Also supported, overlooked and never challenged.

^^ this +1

Taken a long time for them to start acting to clean up the sport, this is just the start I think

Raising the debate up a little, it strikes me that a lot of scandals, decades old, seem to have come out into the open in the last five years. Not just sport. Could it be we’ll look back in time and see this era as the beginning of a new transparency?

After all, power corrupts, money is power and men have been corrupt since Roman and Greek times, it’s human nature, so corruption has always been going on but now it seems harder to cover it up.

It seems to coincide with social media and widespread use of computers and email – I guess its much easier for investigators to find written evidence, much harder/impossible for perpetrators to destroy it, and much easier for whistleblowers to get the information out in the first place as well as public opinion being given a collective voice/able to take direct action…

A few spring to mind:
Armstrong finally confessing
All the BBC and MP paedophilia/Saville
News International – although you might debate whether that’s actually been stopped!
Snowden
FA
Arab Spring (although now back under authoritarian control)
Bernie Madoff
Financial crisis in general – we know bankers sail close to the wind as normal activity but there was plenty of evidence for Libor and Forex which may have been easier to hide in the past
VW
Horsemeat
Tesco

Raising the debate up a little, it strikes me that a lot of scandals, decades old, seem to have come out into the open in the last five years. Not just sport. Could it be we’ll look back in time and see this era as the beginning of a new transparency?

On a related point, social media has meant that protest and the reaction to scandal is far quicker and more coherent than it ever used to be. At times, the virtual pitchforks can be a tremendous force for good, at other times, it’s a witch hunt.

Could it be we’ll look back in time and see this era as the beginning of a new transparency?

No, its just the same old same old. Even in this case they have pulled a political trick, limited the scope of the investigation into the allegations about Russia, ring fencing the problem around the accusations that were already in the wild, while turning a blind eye elsewhere.

As many athletes have said today, not surprising but perhaps the scale is shocking and the fact that IAAF head took bribes to hush it up.

This will be a big challenge for Seb, he will be the one as Pesident of the IAAF to carry a vote of the council through to enact any ban. I believe the IOC will be the one to take a decision about the Rio games. I very much hope Russia is banned from Rio and all IAAF competition for quite some time.

Of course it’s possible for Seb to have been unaware of the bribes, I am certain he was suspicious but also aware of the wada investigation so would sit tight and win the IAAF presidency and now he can act. Aside from his gold medals and the wonderful London olymlics this could be Seb Coe’s legacy

The ex head of the Russian athletics federation is now running their football World Cup organisation, with a new FIFA president due in Feb there could well be pressure to take action around the award of the tournament and doping.

Bollocks! He attacked the revelations right from the off and claimed athletics was clean except a few bad eggs. He is at the top of an organisation desperately trying to keep a lid on the state of Kenyan, Jamaican and Ethiopian drug abuse and has shown no willingness at all to tackle the problem.

The legacy of the London olympics has been nothing but lies, and he will again prove his disdain for grass roots sports by working for the powers at the top rather than the sport as a whole.

What with all those money in sports?

Sports is rather overrated innit!

I think most people realised the measure of the man when he wouldn’t give up his sponsorship with Nike.

Coe on C4 news now, seems to have taken his cues from Sepp Blatter

Of course it’s possible for Seb to have been unaware of the bribes,

As a legal defence its got a 50/50 chance, bu

But his reputation is already ruined, as we’ve seen him try and burry his head in the sand, for years
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2002/feb/09/athletics
And up until a week ago he was calling the Times and others part of ‘Malicious Media Campaign’

His response to the investigation last year was straight out of the Lance Armstrong book of integrity in sport

It is a declaration of war on my sport. I take pretty grave exception to that.

There is nothing in our history of competence and integrity in drug-testing that warrants this kind of attack.

We should not be cowering. We should come out fighting.

Nobody should underestimate the anger at the way our sport has been portrayed.

The fightback has to start here. We cannot be portrayed as a sport that is in any way dragging our heels.

Pretty damning the real issue will be whether they actually act or whether they do a FIFA /Blatter UCI to it

Putin press conferences should be amusing on this as he blames western lies for this

Ce has some credibility in that no one thinks he personally cheated but the organisation is clearly pretty close to unfit for purpose

Very good post MSP.

Somewhat gladdened by the lack of surprise in the posts so far.

Lord Coe’s first instinct is towards politics and diplomacy. Smoothing the waters, being a convincing looking figurehead, effusive with praise for the establishment.

The guy has been second in charge for years, and had no idea, or no compulsion to investigate that this was going on? That alone proves that he’s not the right man to be in charge going forwards.

Ignorance is not an excuse in this instance, it’s just a measure of incompetence.

Looking at athletics as a sport? If this kind of scandal hit another Olympic sport, let’s say Judo, then it would likely be chucked out for not being compliant with the IOC code.

Unfortunately the way it’s looking this time is a few months ban for Russia to say they’ve changed things, and fire a few scapegoats, before taking their place at Rio.

“The idea that my sport sat there either covering up wrongdoing or just being incompetent could not be wider of the mark.”

At best Coe comes across as painfully naive, out of the loop.