Athletics scandal: what next for Russia, Lord Coe and the IAAF?

The world of athletics is in turmoil after the explosive report into Russian doping offences that has prompted calls for the country to be banned from next year's Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned investigation claimed that Russia had engaged in systematic cheating, that its athletes had "sabotaged" the London 2012 Olympics and that the Russian state and security forces were involved.

There could be much worse to come, as parts of the report dealing with allegations of corruption at the sport's world governing body, the IAAF, were kept private because they are the subject of a criminal investigation that is now being overseen by Interpol, while the report's author Dick Pound, suggested the problems could extend beyond Russia and track and field.

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Where does this leave Russia?

Russia's doping programme may have been about winning, but the response must be about taking part, says Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail. "If one Russian athlete so much as sets foot on the track at the Olympic Games next summer, the sport is lost," he says.

The "sheer sprawl" of the allegations makes it unique, he says. "This takes in government bodies, maybe even government ministers, implicates them in the fixing of Olympic events and perhaps an entire Games. It is unprecedented; so what happens next must be unprecedented, too. Russian athletes must be banned from this Olympic Games, and beyond, until it is proven they are running clean."

And the IAAF?

Russia may be grabbing the headlines and even if the IAAF does ban them from the sport there will still be, in the words of Lord Coe, "dark days" ahead, says Owen Gibson of The Guardian. "The 325-page report by the former Wada president Dick Pound should serve as a damning indictment on those who were supposed to be policing world sport, including Wada itself and those who fund it – national governments and the IOC."

Pound himself described his findings as a "pretty damning indictment of what has not been done... At some point the Olympic movement and the governments have to say: 'Are we going to do this properly or shall we all go home?'"

The chairman of UK Athletics, Ed Warner, delivered what The Times calls a "withering assessment" of the IAAF. It reports that he told the BBC: "The IAAF has behaved like a nation state... collectively they don't have the quality to administer a sport on this scale. Coe needs to appoint a new executive team around him at the IAAF... he needs to open up to offers of assistance."

What about the corruption claims?

With the claims about Russia front and centre, the allegations of bribery and extortion at the IAAF have been pushed down the agenda, but with Interpol now investigating they are unlikely to disappear.

"Further embarrassment" lies ahead says The Independent, with Lamine Diack, the former president of the IAAF, and other senior figures under suspicion.

What about Lord Coe?

The current head of the IAAF faces a massive task to win back credibility for his sport. But "Coe’s handling of the scandal has already been called into question", says Matt Dickinson of The Times.

Earlier this year he angrily dismissed media claims of widespread doping as a "declaration of war" against his sport. In his report Pound praised the journalists who helped uncover the scandal.

Coe has also spoken fondly of Diack, with whom he worked at the IAAF for eight years. And the former Olympic gold medallist faced a tough grilling from Jon Snow of Channel 4 News on Monday night. He accused Coe of being either "asleep on the job or corrupt".[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"content_original","fid":"86681","attributes":{"class":"media-image"}}]]

Is it just Russia?

Not necessarily. Pound said his report was just the "tip of the iceberg" and the problems were likely to extend to other countries and other sports. He said it was "inconceivable" that Russian sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, was unaware of what was happening. Mutko is also head of Russia's 2018 football World Cup organising committee, notes The Guardian.

"Kenya and Turkey are two countries thought to be heavily investigated, with a high number of athletes banned because of failed doping tests," says The Independent.

Diplomatic fall-out

The scandal is also in danger of becoming about more than sport. Fifa president Sepp Blatter has claimed that his regime has become the target of Western self-interest, and Russia could play a similar card.

So far Moscow's reaction has been to reject the findings. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin has called them "groundless".

"Another front in the new Cold War between Putin’s mafia state and the West will doubtless be opened up by the detail of FSB (state security) agents appearing in Sochi laboratories and alleged bribes being paid to cover up positive Russian tests," writes Paul Hayward in the Daily Telegraph.

Fomer triple jump world champion Yolanda Chen told the BBC News at Ten: "With everything happening to Russia now, all the sanctions and bad relations with the West, it's like this is just another link in the chain. If they pressurise us on one front and we don't bend then they start hitting us in our sorest spot – and that is sport."