Seb Coe Plans to Introduce 12-Year Presidential Terms for IAAF
February 17, 2015
Seb Coe will introduce presidential term limits of maximum 12 years if he is elected head of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), ampoule he revealed on Tuesday.
The chair of the British Olympic Association made his announcement to reporters in London.
“It would be my intention if successful in August to have a constitutional change that the presidency should be two four year terms with an option for a third term, doctor ” he said. “But it should not exceed 12 years. It should be limited.
“I think if you can’t make a mark probably in the first four years and certainly in the first eight years you probably shouldn’t be there.”
Later, sale in an exclusive interview with iSportconnect, Coe revealed that age limits were a possibility as well but he would not prioritise the issue.
Coe stands for the IAAF presidency along with fellow vice-president Sergey Bubka. The election will take place at the federations congress in Beijing in August when current president Lamine Diack steps down having been in charge since 1999.
One of the most controversial issues Coe will have to address in his campaign is doping. A number of allegations have been made recently against most notably the Russian athletics federation – and Coe believed the claims bolstered his manifesto pledge to have an independent doping review body.
However, the Olympian did not go so far as agreeing with Diack that the allegations represented a crisis for athletics.
“I think we would all identify with that or describe it in slightly different ways,” he said.
“I’m saying nothing that I haven’t said from the very beginning of this; the allegations are serious, it is the role of a current and an incoming president to act on what you can act with certainty and we do need to have the ethics committee, the WADA, the independent review draw its conclusions. And if those conclusions support those allegations then you have to deal with them seriously.”
He added: “We are not the only sport in the world that has these challenges. Yes an independent system would cost more money and I’m prepared to find that.”
Coe also revealed he had been travelling more than 200,000km since last August on his campaign trail, speaking to various organisations and federations.
He highlighted as his experience leading London 2012 as the main reason why he has chosen to challenge for the top job in athletics.
He declined to speak though about his rival Bubka or any other candidates who may go forward, insisting to concentrate on his own bid and that it was a “discussion” for the athletics world to have on the future of the sport.
“This is a referendum on the future,” Coe said of the election in August. But he did admit that the success of athletics was dependent on the marketability of star athletes such as Usain Bolt.
The Jamaican sprinter announced recently that he would retire after the 2017 IAAF World Athetlics Championships in London. That presents a challenge for the IAAF – a world without the marketing power of a competing global icon.
In our exclusive interview coming soon on iSportconnect TV, you can see Coe explain how the athletics world must tackle that challenge.
Watch the trailer:
{jcomments on}
