Lord Coe still running away from questions over his integrity as Panorama exposes the extent of the IAAF chief's relations with former consultant Papa Diack
Lord Coe ducking Panorama questions about handling of corruption scandal
Texts show Coe was in close contact with Papa Diack as the former Olympic champion sought election to the IAAF presidency
It follows the Sportsmail revelations about the email sent by Dave Bedford to Coe months before the Liliya Shobukhova scandal broke
By Mark Daly For The Daily Mail
Published: 17:29 EST, 19 June 2016 | Updated: 05:05 EST, 20 June 2016
Lord Coe may not be as fast as he used to be but I still had to be quick on my toes to keep up with him as he strode purposefully through a Norwegian airport last week.
More than a week previously, I'd submitted 17 allegations and questions to Coe about his handling of the athletics corruption scandal and his IAAF presidential election, to which answers came there none.
Two weeks before that I had requested an interview with Coe but was told by his communications director his time was so short he was only agreeing to interviews with those 'most able to build trust in the sport'.
Under fire athletics boss Lord Coe watches the Aegon Championships final at Queen's Club
BBC Panorama journalist Mark Daly has been rebuffed in his attempts to get Lord Coe to answer questions
I presumed that meant he was only giving interviews to hacks he thought wouldn't give him a hard time.
Undeterred, I believed we had important questions that needed to be answered so I caught up with Coe as he got off a plane in Stavanger.
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The questions had arisen out of an investigation, in collaboration with Sportsmail's Matt Lawton, I had been reporting on for BBC Panorama.
Our evidence suggested Coe had misled MPs at a parliamentary select committee over what he knew and when about the unfolding Russian corruption scandal. We had learned he had been sent an email by former world record-holder Dave Bedford containing the full allegations months before the scandal went public.
Outgoing IAAF president Lamine Diack is pictured next to Lord Coe last August
The allegations centred on a complaint concerning Liliya Shobukhova, the former London Marathon winner who was made to pay £450,000 to cover up her doping offences.
Panorama's evidence also suggested Coe had been very close to the man at the centre of the scandal, the former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Lamine Diack's son, Papa Massata Diack.
Could he explain this to me?
Though unfailingly polite, he refused to answer a single question I put to him, instead referring me to his PR, Jackie Brock-Doyle, who had also previously failed to answer my questions.
This was disappointing, especially since it was Coe himself who said (to the same MPs) he would 'die in a ditch' for the media's right to scrutinise him.
Not on this day, it seemed.
Lamine Diack's son Papa (in white) arrives as the central police station in Dakar, Senegal in February
Also, because text messages have emerged which suggest Papa Massata Diack, now banned from athletics for life, helped to secure votes for Coe's election last year as president of the IAAF, among the questions I asked was: 'Were you taking political campaign advice from Papa Diack while he was accused of serious corruption? Yes or no, Lord Coe.'
'Thank you,' he answered.
That's not one of the options, I thought. But it was as much as I would get.
This polite confrontation did provoke a response and within 24 hours we had been furnished with a statement — which left me with more questions than answers.
He brushed away the suggestion Papa Diack helped him win the presidency, saying that during election campaigns, he got lots of advice, 'some helpful, some not', as if he had been humouring the Senegalese.
However, the cache of texts obtained by Panorama between Lord Coe, his right-hand man Nick Davies and Papa Diack tell their own story. There are dozens, many of them fawning, some of them thanking him profusely for his 'advice and friendship'. Lord Coe and Davies were also actively seeking meetings with him.
Dave Bedford's email sent to Coe prior to the Liliya Shobukhova scandal breaking were revelatory
'So good to have a proper chance to get things out in the open . . . Let's speak regularly,' Coe texted after their meeting in Beijing in April 2015.
At this point, Coe is only too aware Papa Diack is under investigation for extorting athletes to cover up doping — he'd been forced to stand down publicly from the IAAF after a German TV documentary on corruption in December 2014.
They met in the Bahamas the following month, where Papa Diack claims he advised Coe on his campaign manifesto. They met again in Beijing in August that year — he seems to want to keep Papa Diack close.
'Hav (sic) a beer with us,' Coe invited on August 15, four days before the election.
'Seb is on full-on lobbying mode at the moment,' Davies texted Papa Diack on the 17th, adding: 'Seb is wondering when you might be free tonight . . . for a drink?'
'Around 10-11pm, after reviewing issues with president!!' Papa Diack answered.
'Perfect. Seb will call you then,' responded Davies.
Coe's rivalry for the presidency with the Ukrainian ex-pole vaulter Sergey Bubka was much tighter than expected. The support of Africa was crucial and Coe's team knew it. The African athletics federations were loyal to Lamine Diack, and Coe wanted the support of both Diacks to secure it. He seemed to get it.
Panorama obtained texts between Lord Coe, Nick Davies and Papa Diack paint a picture of their relations
'Support of Africa confirmed(24/30)! Good luck!' wrote Papa, the night before the election, a reference to how many nations he was sure were leaning towards the Coe camp.
In the end Coe won by just 23 votes. Papa Diack, who is now a fugitive from Interpol and banned for life by the IAAF ethics commission, told me in Dakar where I went to interview him for last week's Panorama programme: 'If he had not the blessing of Lamine Diack or my support, he would have never been elected as the IAAF president; he knows that.'
Coe denies seeking Papa Diack's help and said he had 'tried to be civil, but wary' with the campaign advice people were offering.
He did not respond to my point that any contact with a man accused of such corruption could lead to questions about judgment and integrity.
But now Coe is facing a dramatic recall to the Culture, Media and Sport select committee for allegedly misleading MPs when he told them last December he was unaware of the corruption allegations.
He maintained this was because although he had received Bedford's email in which the London Marathon chief details corruption, extortion and bribery allegations, he hadn't opened the email attachments, but had forwarded the email to the IAAF's ethics commission which was investigating the matter.
President Coe sits between Sergey Bubka and Jean Garcia during the recent IAAF council meeting
This explanation was interesting, first because Bedford claims he had a conversation with Coe before he sent the email to give him the heads up.
And second, it was Bedford who helped get the corruption allegations to the ethics commission in the first place — five months before he sent them to Coe.
Bedford, who then was the chairman of the IAAF road running commission, wasn't sending it to his old friend to forward to the commission he already knew had the information — he was sending it to Coe because he thought he needed to know what was brewing in the federation Coe sought to lead.
At this point, in August 2014, Coe was IAAF vice-president and was preparing to announce his candidacy for president — didn't he want to know what was going on inside his sport, inside his own organisation, which had become riddled with the worst corruption modern sport has ever seen?
'You may think this shows a lack of curiosity,' his statement read.
I sure would.
Panorama's Seb Coe and the Corruption Scandal is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
SIX KEY POINTS THAT HAVE COE FEELING THE HEAT
1 Lord Coe told the select committee on December 2, 2015 that he was unaware of the extent of the corruption at the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) until a German television documentary in December 2014.
2 Evidence gathered by Sportsmail in a joint investigation with the BBC's Panorama programme shows that Coe received an email from London marathon boss and former world record-holder David Bedford in August 2014, detailing allegations of extortion.
3 Coe was subsequently accused by Damian Collins MP of misleading a Parliamentary select committee. On Friday committee chair Jesse Norman said Coe may now be asked to re-appear before the select committee, following the latest Sportsmail/BBC allegations.
4 On Wednesday a spokeswoman for Coe, Jackie Brock-Doyle, insisted he had not misled the select committee because he did not open the Bedford email and therefore was unaware of its contents.
5 But in an interview with the Evening Standard on Friday, Bedford revealed he spoke to Coe prior to sending the email. 'I asked Seb if he knew about it (the allegations) and he said, 'No'. I said, 'I'll forward you this documentation because someone at a very senior level needs to know about it'.'
6 Coe, on Friday, confirmed that the conversation did indeed take place with Bedford 'at an athletics meeting', but that he forwarded the email without reading it to the IAAF Ethics Commission.
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