Report: Ex-IAAF president's son arranged parcels for IOC members
Papa Massata Diack, the son of the former International Association of Athletics Federation president Lamine Diack, reportedly traded “parcels” to influential members of the International Olympic Committee as Qatar bid for the 2016 Olympics, according to emails seen by The Guardian's Owen Gibson.
Massata Diack served as an IAAF marketing consultant and was banned for life by the track and field governing body after an ethics commission found him guilty of taking part in a cover-up of positive doping tests by Russian athletes.
The Guardian previously reported that Massata Diack requested nearly $5 million from Qatar as Doha bid for the 2017 track and field world championships and 2016 Olympics. He denied the allegations.
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In the latest emails, Massata Diack communicated with a Qatari business executive in May 2008 about exchanging a parcel from a “Special Adviser,” who is presumed to be his father.
“As you know the Special Adviser went to Beijing especially to see his friends in the EXCO and to make sure that all the verbal discussions he had with them and some through his consultants are fully guaranteed,” one correspondence read.
The emails called for Massata Diack to deliver one parcel in Lugano, Switzerland and the rest by the “Special Adviser.”
The “Special Adviser” went on to meet with a Qatari official in Nice, France.
Doha lost the bidding for the 2016 Olympics but in 2015 was awarded the 2019 IAAF World Championships.
The Qatar Athletics Federation denied any wrongdoing to The Guardian.
- Christopher Chavez
