Organizers of next year’s athletics World Championships in London insist they had “nothing to hide” and would fully co-operate with a criminal inquiry into the bidding process for the event. Ed Warner, the chairman of both UK Athletics and the organizing committee for London 2017, according to The Daily Telegraph welcomed the launch of a police investigation into the award of every World Championships this century after an independent WADA commission’s report found International IAAF officials “may have benefited” from the decisions.
“We’ve got nothing to hide,” Warner told Telegraph Sport. “We absolutely welcome any authority coming in, talking to us about it, having a look at our books. Because we did it all through the front door, by the book, in the classically British way.” Warner admitted there were “rumours” of corruption involving IAAF members during the bidding process, in which London triumphed over Doha. Telegraph Sport is aware of some of these rumours, which cannot be published for legal reasons. “These bidding processes are conducted in a febrile atmosphere and rumours fly around,” Warner said.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.