It is easy to celebrate Lamine Diack the outstanding footballer who stamped his footprints in sports from Paris to Dakar and then globally. And as he bids farewell from the saddle as president of IAAF, he takes on a variety of issues, including who succeeds him between Seb Coe and Sergey Bubka, in this interview with International Sports Press Associati on, AIPS. Excerpts…
You were not only a long jumper but also an ardent footballer and later Technical Football Director…
I was a skinny kid at 16. I weighed only 44 kilograms and you can imagine this was too small for a footballer or even for the field events. At school during the physical education courses, I mainly practiced athletics and combined long jump, high jump, shot put and a sport we had then called climbing which was an interesting mix of gymnastics.
I was good at long jump and high jump but not at shot put or climbing. The sport I enjoyed then was football. I was a good footballer, by the time I was 12, I controlled the midfield. I played football from 1958 to 1962 and scored a lot of goals, and was also a good volley-baller.
How did you get into IAAF and how did Senegalese politicians and administrators get into this?
The first IAAF (then International Amateur Athletics Federation) congress I attended was in Rome in 1974, and I remember then it was difficult to talk, to be heard. I was sitting with the national Senegalese delegation because the congress then didn’t recognise the African Confederation that I headed.
But later Montreal was important as this is where I was voted in and some key changes were made to the composition of our membership. I was the vice-president who recorded the highest votes of 300 whilst the second got 270 votes. What this showed was that all the countries in the congress voted for me and I became senior vice-president in 1995. South Africa was barred in Montreal and two years later China was included as an independent affiliate association of the IAAF in 1978.
We created the World Cup in 1977 in Düsseldorf and independently organised competitions as IAAF. Before 1977, we had only one competition before the Olympics that was the world championships, besides race walking and cross-country. In 1982 we changed our rules and changed our association to allow athletes to get earnings from their international races and events. 1984 was the year when we started the marketing programme after the signing of the IAAF/ISL agreement in 1983.
In 1999 you were elected as President, but you still remained as President of Africa. How did you manage both offices?
In Africa we always had consensus. During my tenure we never had elections and I always tried to make sure all the athletics nations were represented in the AAAC Committee. But as I prepared to hand over Africa, it was clear consensus had failed as we had leaders from West, East and Central Africa wanting to succeed me.
After talks that ran deep into the night with each of the aspirants, I decided then that consensus had failed and they insisted we should have to go for a vote. I was clear then that my choice was Malboum Kalkaba because he spoke good English and French and that worked well for Africa.
He also came from the Commonwealth and was the president of a national Olympic committee, so he could be a strong leader; he also had a strong sporting background. But as you know they didn’t accept my suggestion and they insisted on the vote that Kalkaba won finally. It is the same modality I tried to get council members on the IAAF Executive.
My appointment in 1999 as IAAF President was by consensus and acclamation of the majority. Taking over from Primo Nebiolo of Italy was a highlight but as I have explained it was a journey that took me round sports administration. And now I know it’s time to hand over the baton.
The IAAF presidency will certainly be returning to Europe and for the first time we shall have elections for the post. What do you think of the two candidates, Seb Coe and Sergey Bubka?
Well consensus may not work for now as they have both declared their wish to vie for the post… I don’t know. But these two are both my picks. In 2006, I met colleagues of my generation who were on the council and I told them I would leave in 2015 and I thought that we needed a new generation of leaders to take over, because most of them were my age mates.
I told them that both Seb Coe and Sergey Bubka are great champions and have been in the council long enough and are well versed in the Association as vice-presidents. So for now both of them are my picks and I am keenly following their campaigns. If later I have to decide and back one, I will announce my pick on who I think is best of the two and why.
There is so much interest on the IAAF vice-presidency as well, so many contenders…
There are quite a number. I think it would be good to have one representative from each area, each continent. There is no way for instance Africa can have two. Kalkaba and Kiplagat (Isaiah) have to agree. I will try and talk to them but they have to sit and agree. Kalkaba is already in the council as IAAF representative so maybe he can say: ‘I will support Kiplagat to be the vicepresident’. If they want to be two, only one of them will be elected because the other continents and even Africa will not vote for two Africans. If Kalkaba decides to go ahead and he succeeds for the interest of Africa, it is best that he finds a successor. But anyway this is a problem for Africa to solve. I will only step in if they seek my help.
As you leave the IAAF what are your biggest achievements?
I think I would be proud of the financial situation of the federation because in every situation we cannot achieve everything. During my tenure, the IAAF and its marketing partner Dentsu raised over one billion dollars of revenue from TV & sponsors. In 2015, the financial reserves will be $65-67 million.
I think it’s a big achievement and all the way I have been very successful. I tried to make athletics universal and now athletics is everywhere. I was interested in bringing the world championships to Africa and although it has never been a priority, we managed to boost the money the continents and the federations receive as support. The IAAF used to have six European one-day meetings with few athletes participating every year. Now we have a league of 14 competition meetings that are spread over three continents.
Athletes are also now living and making money from athletics. I think the Athletics Federation was among the first who were very conscious of having a clean sport soon after we introduced money into the sport. We were the first federation to set up a comprehensive and well-funded Medical and Anti doping programme, alongside clear rules, manuals on doping violations for both in and out of competition testing. In 2014 we had 3600 tests with 120 positive cases, but nobody makes noise about the 2900 negative cases.
It’s a fight that the Olympic Committee, WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) and governments all have to play a role in, we have to continue the fight against cheating and it’s great that there are now establishments of National Anti Doping organisations in key track and field countries.
Do you have any regret or anything you wish you could have done but didn’t do?
Yes, in Africa I was not able to make athletics the number one sport everywhere. Look at athletics in my country and where we are now… very far from what we used to be. We were good high and long jumpers, produced great sprinters, and organised great championships. But the reason for the decline is simply because athletics has disappeared from school in Dakar, unlike for instance the Caribbean islands which have a robust school athletics programme.
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