Key points of WADA commission report

The independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency or WADA released its report on Wednesday which delves deep on corruption in athletics

Germany: Key points from the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report, released on Wednesday and from comments made by report co-author Dick Pound at a news conference in Munich:

On the role played in the corruption by Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations

* Diack was "responsible for organising and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place in the IAAF."

* He appeared to have created a close inner circle which functioned as "an informal illegitimate governance structure" outside the IAAF, a circle which included his sons Papa Massata Diack and Khalil Diack, who were contracted as consultants.

* He sanctioned and appeared to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the illegitimate governance structure he put in place.
On IAAF corruption

* The corruption was "embedded" in the IAAF. "It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own," the report said. It was "increasingly clear" that far more IAAF staff knew about the problems than has so far been acknowledged.

* Professor Richard McLaren, a WADA member and legal counsel, said: "Certain individuals within the IAAF went beyond sporting corruption and (it) may have been criminal corruption."

* The IAAF had an inadequate governance process in place to prevent the corruption that occurred and the checks and balances of good governance were missing.

* There appeared to be no governance rules or policies regarding the employment of family members of senior IAAF staff.

* It was "completely improper governance" to allow supervision of suspected Russian doping cases to be separately managed by the IAAF President`s personal legal counsel, Habib Cisse.

* Senior staff of the IAAF could not have been unaware of the extent of interference with normal functions within the Medical and Anti-Doping Dept. 

* "The IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility. Continued denial will simply make it more difficult to make genuine progress," Pound said.

On Sebastian Coe, the IAAF President

* Pound said he couldn`t think of anyone better than Coe to help athletics recovery from the scandal. "There is an enormous amount of reputational recovery needed. It`s a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize the opportunity and move forward but I can`t think of anyone better than Sebastian Coe to lead it," Pound said. 

* "There`s no way Sebastian Coe could have known the extent of what (Lamine) Diack was up to," Pound said.

* Pound "does not believe" Coe lied when he said he did not know about the corruption.
On the doping of Russian athletes

* "The IAAF`s awareness of problems involving Russia was far wider than was acknowledged and the IAAF showed no appetite to deal with the problems," Pound said.

* Senior staff of the IAAF knew Russian athletes should be banned before the world championships in Moscow in 2013 and did nothing about it

* Senior IAAF members were surprised that athletes participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games despite assurances that they would not participate

On the possible return of Russian athletics to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics after the suspension of their athletics federation (ARAF)

* Asked if ARAF would have time to be reinstated and ready for the Rio Olympics, Pound told Reuters: "Russia have been caught with their pants down and now they have to deal with it. If they do they will be back. They will be in Rio. If they don`t they won`t. It`s that simple."

On Diack`s relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin

* After inaction on dealing with the cases of nine Russian athletes accused of doping before the world championships in Moscow in 2013, Diack told a lawyer that he "was in a difficult position that could only be resolved by President Putin of Russia with whom he had struck up a friendship."

On allegations that the anti-doping activities of the IAAF in respect to blood doping were inadequate.

* The report found "The activities (of the IAAF) in the face of suspicious (blood) values have generally been thorough and reasonable. The IAAF has been extremely active in this aspect of the fight against doping in sport. 

* The commission found it would not have been legally possible to bring successful sanctioning processes against any athlete based on the information contained in the IAAF blood doping database.

On comparisons with FIFA scandal in football

* "I don`t think the IAAF problems are as bad as that (FIFA). What troubles the commission is that this corruption affects the outcome of the competition, that is the most troubling part," Pound said. 

On bidding processes for athletics championships

* Pound recommends a "forensic examination" of the processes behind the awarding of the 2021 world athletics championships to Eugene in the United States.

* There may be reason to believe that senior IAAF officials and others acting on their behalf may have benefitted from decisions of the IAAF to award the world championships to certain cities and countriesMUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Key points from the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report, released on Wednesday and from comments made by report co-author Dick Pound at a news conference in Munich:

On the role played in the corruption by Lamine Diack, the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations

* Diack was "responsible for organising and enabling the conspiracy and corruption that took place in the IAAF."

* He appeared to have created a close inner circle which functioned as "an informal illegitimate governance structure" outside the IAAF, a circle which included his sons Papa Massata Diack and Khalil Diack, who were contracted as consultants.

* He sanctioned and appeared to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the illegitimate governance structure he put in place.
On IAAF corruption

* The corruption was "embedded" in the IAAF. "It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd renegade acting on his own," the report said. It was "increasingly clear" that far more IAAF staff knew about the problems than has so far been acknowledged.

* Professor Richard McLaren, a WADA member and legal counsel, said: "Certain individuals within the IAAF went beyond sporting corruption and (it) may have been criminal corruption."

* The IAAF had an inadequate governance process in place to prevent the corruption that occurred and the checks and balances of good governance were missing.

* There appeared to be no governance rules or policies regarding the employment of family members of senior IAAF staff.

* It was "completely improper governance" to allow supervision of suspected Russian doping cases to be separately managed by the IAAF President`s personal legal counsel, Habib Cisse.

* Senior staff of the IAAF could not have been unaware of the extent of interference with normal functions within the Medical and Anti-Doping Dept. 

* "The IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility. Continued denial will simply make it more difficult to make genuine progress," Pound said.
On Sebastian Coe, the IAAF President

* Pound said he couldn`t think of anyone better than Coe to help athletics recovery from the scandal. "There is an enormous amount of reputational recovery needed. It`s a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize the opportunity and move forward but I can`t think of anyone better than Sebastian Coe to lead it," Pound said. 

* "There`s no way Sebastian Coe could have known the extent of what (Lamine) Diack was up to," Pound said.

* Pound "does not believe" Coe lied when he said he did not know about the corruption.
On the doping of Russian athletes

* "The IAAF`s awareness of problems involving Russia was far wider than was acknowledged and the IAAF showed no appetite to deal with the problems," Pound said.

* Senior staff of the IAAF knew Russian athletes should be banned before the world championships in Moscow in 2013 and did nothing about it

* Senior IAAF members were surprised that athletes participated in the 2012 London Olympic Games despite assurances that they would not participate
On the possible return of Russian athletics to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics after the suspension of their athletics federation (ARAF)

* Asked if ARAF would have time to be reinstated and ready for the Rio Olympics, Pound told Reuters: "Russia have been caught with their pants down and now they have to deal with it. If they do they will be back. They will be in Rio. If they don`t they won`t. It`s that simple."

On Diack`s relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin

* After inaction on dealing with the cases of nine Russian athletes accused of doping before the world championships in Moscow in 2013, Diack told a lawyer that he "was in a difficult position that could only be resolved by President Putin of Russia with whom he had struck up a friendship."

On allegations that the anti-doping activities of the IAAF in respect to blood doping were inadequate.

* The report found "The activities (of the IAAF) in the face of suspicious (blood) values have generally been thorough and reasonable. The IAAF has been extremely active in this aspect of the fight against doping in sport. 

* The commission found it would not have been legally possible to bring successful sanctioning processes against any athlete based on the information contained in the IAAF blood doping database.

On comparisons with FIFA scandal in football

* "I don`t think the IAAF problems are as bad as that (FIFA). What troubles the commission is that this corruption affects the outcome of the competition, that is the most troubling part," Pound said. 

On bidding processes for athletics championships

* Pound recommends a "forensic examination" of the processes behind the awarding of the 2021 world athletics championships to Eugene in the United States.

* There may be reason to believe that senior IAAF officials and others acting on their behalf may have benefitted from decisions of the IAAF to award the world championships to certain cities and countries