Lord Coe's former chief of staff sacked from IAAF over secret payments

Lord Coe’s right hand man, Nick Davies, has been sacked from the IAAF after admitting taking a total of 30 thousand Euros, in cash, from the son of the disgraced former President Lamine Diack.

The ruling comes on an uncomfortable day for Coe, who has been accused of withholding information about the Russian doping scandal while being questioned by MPs.

Chair of that committee Damian Collins MP said emails have come to light that show "Lord Coe had information that was relevant to the committee’s inquiry into doping in sport that we would have liked him to have shared at that time.

"I think they (the documents) show quite clearly he was aware, certainly in general terms, of the allegations and how serious those allegations were."

The letter from Lord Coe to Damian Collins at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. Credit: .
Lord Coe has denied any discrepancy between his evidence and what the emails suggest he knew. Credit: AP

In the email to the QC who heads up the IAAF’s ethics investigations, sent long before his interrogation at Westminster, Coe writes "I have in the last couple of days received copied documentation of serious allegations being made by and on behalf of the Russian female athlete Shobukhova from David Bedford.”

At his appearance before MPs Coe had said he was "not aware" of specific allegations of corruption around the Russian doping scandal.

Despite this, Coe has denied any discrepancy between his evidence and what the emails suggest he knew.

He concluded a four page letter to Mr Collins by saying "I was not asked when I first knew about the allegations that persons at the IAAF were involved in the cover up of Russian doping cases and I have made clear, I did not read David Bedford’s emailed documents but asked my office to forward them…"

Lord Coe has been accused of withholding information about the Russian doping scandal. Credit: AP

All this on a day when Lord Coe’s one-time confidant Nick Davies is thrown out of the IAAF in disgrace. Not only did Davies take a huge sum of cash from Papa Diack, he also lied about doing so during evidence to an IAAF ethics investigation into corruption.

He changed his evidence later and in mitigation claimed he was concerned the payment, which he said was designed to be used for PR purposes, would make him appear corrupt.

The investigation accepted Davies' explanations, cleared him of corruption and resisted banning him from working in the sport entirely.

While that is the end of it for Davies at the IAAF, it will probably not stop the questions regarding Lord Coe’s judgement for employing him in such a senior position when he first became President.

Today will also ensure questions over what he knew about the Russian doping scandal and more importantly, when, will continue too.