byLarry Eder
Insidethegames.biz revealed earlier this week that Lamine Diack, President of the IAAF, is running for President of the IAAF, once again, in Daegu, in 2011. This is contrary to what Diack said to supporters in his previous election, in 2007. This has been met with mixed responses, most notably from Lord Sebastian Coe, who is considering a run for the IAAF presidency.
Coe is currently the face of the London 2012 project. He is battling to keep an athletics legacy as UK athletics is developing athletes to increase UK medal hopes in 2012. Tomorrow, the IAAF Diamond League launches, in Doha, Qatar. The series of 14 one day events, has been sold on TV across the world, and is one of the positive signs in the sport.
The real challenges for the IAAF, in this modern world, is to find new sponsorship revenue streams, promote athletes and events through integrated media, provide a series of events that are easy to understand for fans and focus on the competition, and assure sponsors, media and fans, that the sport is managed well, promoted globally and has the staying power to be a lively global sport. Confidence in the sports leadership, in who is the President of the IAAF, and how he or she guides the global sport, is key to the sports survival.
Coe warns that IAAF faces a major crisis
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
By Duncan Mackay in London
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
May 12 – Sebastian Coe, the 1980 and 1984 Olympic 1,500 metres champion, today painted a picture of athletics as a sport standing on the edge of a major crisis that, if serious issues are not addressed, could threaten its future.
Coe, now the chairman of London 2012 and a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), was reacting in the wake of news revealed by insidethegames.biz earlier this week that Lamine Diack plans to stand for re-election again next year as President of the IAAF when he will be 78.
The decision by the former Senegalese Government Minister to stand after he declared publicly following his re-election at the IAAF Congress in 2007 that he would step down at the end of his four-year term having held the post since the death of Primo Nebiolo in 1999 came as Coe was considering a bid to replace him.
It was a contest that was also expected to feature International Olympic Committee members (IOC), the Ukraine’s Sergey Bubka, the 1988 Olympic pole vault champion and world record holder, and Morocco’s Nawal El Moutawakel, the 1984 Olympic 400m hurdles gold medallist.
Diack made his decision to put himself forward again amid reports that the IAAF is facing severe financial problems.
The sport’s money problems are set to be top of the agenda when the ruling IAAF Executive Committee meets in Monte Carlo on May 28.
Coe said: “There are some very serious issues and challenges that will be on the agenda that day.
“Those challenges almost supersede almost any issues about an election
“We are a sport that is not engaging with young people in the way we know we have to.
“We are a sport that has some television challenges.
“We are a sport that has media challenges
“We are a sport that has marketing and structural issues to deal with.”
Coe is refusing, publicly at least, to declare whether or not he will stand against Diack at the election which is due to take place next year in Daegu, South Korea, venue for the 2011 World Championships.
He told insidethegames: “I have really not thought about that.
“But the IAAF is an organisation that, we know, faces challenges, commercially, internally and externally.”
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