MONACO: In a bid to end the corruption that has rocked the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), the track and field’s governing body has adopted constitutional reform suggested by president Sebastian Coe.
The IAAF Special Congress held in Monaco on Saturday delivered a 95 percent vote in favour of a resolution for constitutional reform which will be delivered in two stages, January 1, 2017, and January 1, 2019, issuing in a new era of transparent and accountable sports administration.
In the Congress, 182 member federations voted for the reforms, with 10 against and five invalid votes. Some 197 of the IAAF's 213 member federations were present.
“We must protect our sport,” Coe was quoted saying in a media release by the IAAF. “We must put in place the structures that will keep our sport and athletes safe on and off the field of play, in and out of the stadium.”
“It is bad enough that any of this happened once BUT it cannot happen a second time. Not on our watch and not on anyone else’s watch. We have to step up and ensure the walls are never too high again and that checks and balances are in place and working,” he added.
Since Coe took the office in August 2015, the world athletics body has been mired in the fall-out from the presidency Diack, at the centre of a corruption scandal in which several former senior IAAF officials were found to have bribed Russian athletes to keep quiet over positive doping tests.