IAAF president responds to questions: “Were you asleep, or corrupt?”

Seb Coe, the IAAF president, was featured in an interview with Channel 4 News on Monday centering around the recent doping allegations.

“You were the number two in the entire outfit, and you made no effort to scour the place for drugs.”

Lord Coe questionedWere you “asleep on the job, or corrupt?”

That was Jon Snow’s question to International Association of Athletics Federations President Lord Coe.

The London 2012 boss was Vice President of the IAAF during the period when allegations of doping took place.

Posted by Channel 4 News on Monday, November 9, 2015

The president of the International Association of Athletics Federations was featured in a doping-related interview with Jon Snow and Channel 4 News based out of London, U.K. on Monday afternoon.

Sebastian Coe, the IAAF vice president in 2012, the period when the doping allegedly took place, faces scrutiny after the World Anti-Doping Agency released a report on systematic doping in Russian athletics on Monday.

Coe was repeatedly questioned whether it was his responsibility as vice president to act on doping concerns at the time of the 2012 Summer Olympics, but evaded answering by stating that restructuring governance was beyond his control.

RELATED: WADA reveals findings from investigation: How you reacted

RELATED: Russian marathoner and masters world record holder suspended for doping.

Full transcript of the interview:

Jon Snow: “You’re one of the greatest sportsmen that have ever run for Britain, and yet you became president of an organization which turns out to have been desperately corrupt at the very top, desperately failing on the job it had, and surely people would have thought: ‘He of all people will carry the baton, and scour this place for this kind of stuff’?”

Seb Coe: “Jon, that is my responsibility now.”

JS: “But did you do it?”

SC: “That is my responsibility now. I’m in a position as president to affect the changes that I want and they will be affected in the light of the criminal allegations that have been made and the report that was made today [Monday, Nov. 9].”

JS: “Lord Coe that simply isn’t going to wash. You were deputy president, you were the number two in the entire outfit, and you made no effort to scour the place for drugs.”

SC: “No Jon, I was deputy chairman, vice president, in an organization but those allegations have come as a shock to all of us.”

JS: “Either you were asleep on the job, or people can say: ‘There are only two choices here, asleep on the job or corrupt.’ Which is it?”

SC: “We need to look at the systems that were in place, and yes, should we possibly have seen this coming? The answer may well be yes to that question.”

JS: “That you personally then fell down on the job?”

SC: “We need to look at the corporate governance, we need to look at our internal governance that could have allowed this to happen. And that is now my responsibility.”

Russia faces a potential ban from the 2016 Rio Olympics if the Russian athletics federation does not abide by WADA doping controls.

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