The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said it was unaware of an attempt by Papa Massata Diack to secure a representation contract for Stuttgart’s bid to host the 2006 IAAF Athletics World Cup by urging the city to offer cash payments, luxury watches, gifts and entertainment to IAAF officials. Papa Massata Diack, son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack, worked as a marketing consultant for the IAAF and is wanted by Interpol in connection to a French police investigation into allegations of corruption at the IAAF. Documentation listing a series of demands was obtained by Sky News yesterday. The IAAF confirmed that its Ethics Board was now investigating.

‘The IAAF was not aware of those specific attempts’, read an IAAF statement emailed to Sky News. ‘Papa Massata Diack in his role as an IAAF Marketing Consultant had a responsibility to raise funds for the IAAF Continental Programme (Area Confederations) which was done through sponsorship’. Stuttgart didn’t sign the deal with Diack, but did host the IAAF World Athletics Final at the Gottlieb-Daimler Stadium in September 2006.

The documentation obtained by Sky News shows that Diack proposed making over €360,000 in cash contributions and gifts to ‘persons of influence’, which allegedly included IAAF Council members. Diack’s company – PMD Consulting – would also receive a US$600,000 fee. Half of this would be paid in advance and the remainder should Stuttgart’s bid be successful.

The demands detailed in the documents included:

• Watches by brands such as Ebel, Rolex and Montblanc as gifts for ‘persons of influence’ totalling US$40,000;
• $16,800 for the High Performance Training Centre in Jamaica (used by Usain Bolt);
• $35,000 for the North, Central American & Caribbean Coaches Association (NACAC);
• $84,900 to build a new headquarters for the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) in Diack’s hometown of Dakar, Senegal;
• $35,000 for the Latin American athletics confederation (ConSudAtle);
• $25,000 for ‘scholarships for athletes/US Universities’;
• $78,000 for ‘assistance to competitions (worldwide)’;
• $78,000 for ‘travel assistance (budget in AF/Delta Airlines)’;
• Costs associated with setting up a lobbying presence in Doha, Qatar, where the IAAF vote would be held on the awarding of the 2006 IAAF World Cup host, including gifts, $25,000.

In April last year, football officials were forced to return 65 watches given as gifts by the Brazilian football confederation (CBF), after FIFA’s Ethics Commission opened an investigation into whether receipt of the watches constituted a breach of the FIFA Code of Ethics. FIFA found that the CBF had spent €540,000 on watches valued at €1.6 million, ahead of the FIFA 2014 World Cup Brazil. FIFA told the Sports Integrity Initiative that all 65 watches had been returned.