Diack’s sons, Papa Massata and Khalil, are said to have played an important part in an ‘illegitimate governance structure’ operated by the former president

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has laid blame for the corruption and malpractice which emanated from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) firmly at the feet of its former president Lamine Diack.

In the second part of the WADA Independent Commission report into widespread doping and corruption in the sport, Diack, president of the IAAF for 16 years from 1999-2015, is said to have created an “inner circle” which functioned as an “illegitimate governance structure outside the formal IAAF governance structure” and enabled the continual subversion of normal anti-doping procedures.

Diack’s sons, a former IAAF marketing consultant who was recently banned for life from the sport by the IAAF Ethics Commission, Papa Massata, and another independent consultant, Khalil, are heavily implicated, as well as Diack Sr’s lawyer and personal advisor, Habib Cisse.

The report said: “He (Lamine Diack) sanctioned and appears to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the informal illegitimate governance structure he put in place.”

Cisse, who is said to have been assigned by the former president in November 2011 to specifically deal with doping cases regarding Russian athletes, is described in the report as being “at the heart of the schemes for disrupting IAAF results management by intentionally delaying results management and interfering with the pursuit of prosecution of Russian athletes.”

It is believed the manipulation of result management and disciplinary procedures with regards to the Russian Athlete Biological Passports (ABP) of many Russian athletes was in exclusive control of Cisse by early 2012.

Gabriel Dolle, the former head of the IAAF anti-doping unit who was handed a five-year ban by the Ethics Commission for his part in the doping cover-up, is alleged to have been directed by Diack Sr to embed Cisse into the anti-doping department in order to conduct the handling of Russian ABP data, thus allowing for notifications and sanctions of positive tests to be stalled or delayed.

The report read: “Their actions allowed dirty Russian athletes to compete and alter the results on the playing field. This conduct has the same effect as a cover up.”

Lamine and Papa Massata Diack, Dolle and Cisse are all currently under investigation by French prosecutors, with Diack Sr’s involvement said to have increased from “passive” to “active corruption” in the eyes of the prosecution.

Read more on the WADA Independent Commission report here.

See AW’s January 21 edition for further coverage of part two of the WADA Independent Commission report

The post WADA lays blame for IAAF corruption with former president Lamine Diack appeared first on Athletics Weekly.