Athletics doping scandal: Lord Coe must salvage credibility

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But when he hosts an IAAF council conference http://www.seahawksofficialnflonline.com/WOMENS_YOUTH_KEVIN_NORWOOD... call on Friday evening at a secret location in London, he will be aware that not only is his reputation on the line, but that of his sport.

Coe and his 26 council colleagues must decide whether to suspend Russia from international athletics as punishment for the World Anti-Doping Agency's (Wada) damning report. They are almost certain to do so.

This is not a decision to take lightly. The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport's governing body, has never before banned a nation for cheating.

A few countries have been suspended for government interference, but not for state-sponsored doping. And this is Russia, one of the richest and most powerful sporting nations on earth, both as host and medallist.

Next year alone, Russia is meant to be Rams Sean Mannion Elite Jersey hosting May's World Race Walking championships in Cheboksary, and the Junior World Championships in Kazan in July. Both may have to be staged elsewhere if the threat of a suspension is carried out. And what sort of message would isolation send out with the 2018 World Cup on the horizon?

But given that the IAAF itself is reeling from devastating accusations that it was an accomplice to the cheating, the pressure to be seen to act decisively, to set a proper example and to establish a real deterrent - as requested by one of the Wada report authors Dick Pound - has become intense.
The IAAF's Constitutional Objects include "eradicating doping from the sport and safeguarding the authenticity and integrity of athletics". Russia appears to have flouted such a pledge, so a suspension seems certain.

And with Pound admitting that all this is merely "the tip of the iceberg", if a precedent is set, then further bans in other countries and in other sports could well follow.

A hearing will have to be held before any provisional suspension is fully signed off, but with that regarded as a formality, the main question of course is when such a ban would be lifted. The IAAF may well make the suspension indefinite, but set out conditions that Russia must meet before it is allowed to be reinstated.

The sense is Russia will simply do what http://www.steelersnflofficialprostore.com/AUTHENTIC+MICHAEL+VICK+J... is required, say it has cleaned up its act, and be back in time for the big one - the Rio Olympics - next summer, making it look like a mere slap on the wrist. That is hardly something that will help win back confidence in the sport - or its new leader.
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