Highlights of IAAF Council Meeting - Day 1

MonteCarloMonday 13 November, the morning after the crowning of the World Athlete of the Year at the prestigious annual World Athletics Gala, IAAF President Lamine Diack and his Council colleagues were back at work for a 9 hour session at the Hotel Fairmont in Monaco.

IAAF suspends the Algerian federation

Council heard a report on the situation in Algeria, where the President of the federation and the entire executive committee has been suspended by Algeria’s Minister of sports for a period of 4 years. IAAF Council agreed that the decision of the minister to put in place an interim committee was totally unacceptable and has taken the rare step to suspend the Algerian Athletics Federation from the IAAF, with immediate effect. This decision means that Algerian athletes will not be able to compete in international competitions. President Diack said that “the IAAF will strongly support the independence of democratically elected federations against all form of government interference.”

New Acronyms

Council agreed that, at the request of the IOC, the two new countries recognised as IAAF members would be known by the following three letter codes:

Montenegro = MNE
Serbia = SRB

Age manipulation

Council continued to study the cases of age manipulation of three former Kenyan athletes who competed for Bahrain at the 2005 IAAF World Youth Championships. Council noted that, following carefully study of all the available evidence it was agreed that Belai Mansour Ali, formerly known as John Yego – is innocent of all charges as his date of birth has been proved to be correct.

However, the cases of the other athletes, Taher Tarah Mubaraq (Dennis Kipkurui) and Khamis Adam (Hosea Kosgei) are still being investigated. Further information is being sought from the Bahrain federation and the athletes, before a final decision can be made.

Road Running Working Group becomes new IAAF Commission

Because of the increasing desire by the IAAF to become more closely involved in the world of road running, It was agreed by Council that a specific Road Running Commission should be created, consisting initially of the members of the existing road running working group, namely:

Lamine Diack (IAAF)
Roberto Gesta De Melo (IAAF)
Otto Klappert (IAAF Road and CC Committee)
Dave Bedford (IAAF Road and CC Committee)
Carlos Cardoso (IAAF Road and CC Committee)
Mary Wittenberg (World Marathon Majors)
Hiroaki Chosa (AIMS)
Pierre Weiss (IAAF)

Council will review the membership of this new commission at its next meeting in Mombasa in March 2007.

It was also agreed that the current IAAF Cross Country and Road Running Committee would change its name at the next Congress in Osaka, and be known only as the IAAF Cross Country Committee.

19 Member Federations competed at every IAAF event in 2006

IAAF Council commended the following 19 IAAF federations for having competed at ALL IAAF World Athletics competitions in 2006….
Belarus
Brazil
Dominican Republic
Ethiopia
France
Great Britain
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
Poland
Qatar
Romania
Russia
South Africa
Spain
USA

Change to date of women’s marathon at 2008 Olympic Games

Council accepted a request from the IOC to change the date of the women’s marathon race from Friday 15 August 2008 to Sunday 17 August. The proposed start time is 07:30 in the morning.

2007 IAAF World Road Running Championships

Council approved the timetable of the next edition of the World Road Running Championships which will take place in Udine, Italy on 14 October 2007 over the distance of Half Marathon.

08:30 Mass Race
10:00 Opening Ceremony
10:30 Women’s Race
12:15 Men’s Race

2011 and 2013 World Championships’ bidding cities

Council heard that the deadline for receipt of written documents from those Member federations who have applied to host the 2011 and 2013 editions of the IAAF World Championships is 1 December. Following that date, the applications will be carefully studied with the goal of having a maximum of five contenders for the two championships, with the final decision to be taken at the next IAAF Council Meeting in Mombasa, Kenya, in March 2007.

 

IAAF Budget 2007

The IAAF Treasurer Jean Poczubut presented a proposed Budget for 2007 which was approved by the Council.

More than 44% of IAAF expenditure in 2007 will be devoted to prize money for athletes, totalling almost US$ 12 million, with the total budget agreed at approximately US$ 64 million.

IAAF Marketing budget has been tripled, thanks to number of new initiatives, including research and branding. US$450,000 will also be devoted to Kids Athletics and other projects aimed at attracting young people to the sport.

It was agreed that the IAAF’s investment in development of the sport would be increased to a record total of US$ 14 million, which represents more than 21% of the IAAF’s total budget.

The IAAF Anti-Doping budget in 2007 will be increased to a total of 2.8 million, with the increase devoted to educational initiatives.

IAAF Restructuring

IAAF President Lamine Diack confirmed that work was on-going to complete a new internal structure at the IAAF following the demise of the former General Secretary Istvan Gyulai. In a quest to develop greater coherence, the IAAF has recently set up a dedicated Marketing department and will group together, under the umbrella of an enlarged Competitions Department, operational, technical and administrative services linked to competitions. After a careful evaluation process, the IAAF is now close to appointing a Director of Competitions to handle these operational duties, allowing new General Secretary Pierre Weiss to focus on the management, administration and coordination of the IAAF’s daily work.

President Diack also underlined Sandro Giovannelli’s unique experience in competition matters, and informed Council that Giovannelli will now join the President’s Office as Special Adviser to monitor IAAF competitions, as well as maintaining regular contact with member federations, meeting organizers, athletes, and athlete's representatives on behalf of the President.

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