London 2017 has nothing to hide, says Ed Warner

'London 2017 was completely above board'

(Getty Images)

Organisers of London 2017 say they have nothing to hide over the bidding process for next year’s World Championships in the capital and insist there was “no dealing with brown envelopes”.

On Thursday, the World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission called for an inquiry into the bidding processes for every world championships from 2009 onwards, including in London next year. But Ed Warner, chairman of the 2017 organising committee, said the British public had no need to worry about the successful bid following a two-horse race against Doha.

“London 2017 was completely above board,” said Warner, who is also the chairman of UK Athletics. “We’re London and we’re Britain and we simply don’t deal with brown envelopes. So for us, it was very much a front-door approach.

“Being involved in this bid, you hear all sorts of rumours flying around, information and misinformation, so you have no idea what other parties might be doing. They might be doing nothing. But what I can say is that the London bid was straightforward, honest and by the book. We’ve got completely nothing to hide. But for the integrity of the sport, it’s important that we look at all the bidders and we’ll happily open our books.”

One of the co-authors of the independent commission report, lawyer Richard McLaren, had raised concerns about the bids to host athletics’ biennial event.

“We don’t have hard evidence,” he said, “but it’s enough information that we think it bears serious investigation,” while French investigators looking into bribery and corruption claims related to the former heads of athletics’ world gov- erning body the IAAF admitted their enquiries had turned to potential financial irregularities related to how the various bids were won.

Qatar officials have denied any misdemeanour with regards to their various proposals for major sporting events but an email exchange from Papa Massata Diack previously indicated that the son of the former IAAF president Lamine had asked for $5 million (£3.5m) from Qatar officials in their failed bid for the 2017 championships.

“I’ve read the stories out there about Papa Massata Diack demanding money from Qatar,” added Warner. “I’m in a position now where I’ve got to believe anything because so much is coming out from different directions and you don’t want to be naive. With everything going on, you have to suspend belief.”

In a footnote to Wada’s independent commission report, its authors, McLaren, Dick Pound and Günter Younger, also questioned the process behind Tokyo winning the vote to host the 2020 Olympic Games, which it sealed after a final-round vote of 60-36 over Istanbul.

The report read: “It is stated that Turkey lost Lamine Diack’s support because they did not pay sponsorship money of $4 to $5 million either to the Diamond League or IAAF. According to the transcript, the Japanese did pay that sum. The 2020 Games were awarded to Tokyo.”

But a spokesperson for the 2020 Games in Japan insisted everything had been above board. Hikariko Ono said: “The Tokyo 2020 organising committee considers that the note in the report is beyond our understanding. The Games were awarded to Tokyo because the city presented the best bid.

“Tokyo’s bid was about Japan’s commitment to address issues around the integrity of sport. Today, Tokyo 2020 is even more committed to contributing to safeguard the place of sport in society in these fast-changing and challenging times for sport.”