IOC Discipline Pair Following Ethics Probe

The International Olympic Committee has disciplined Issa Hayatou and Lamine Diack, following an ethics committee probe into the acceptance of payments from a marketing firm.

Hayatou, head of African football (CAF), was reprimanded, while Lamine Diack, president of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF), was given a warning.

The action follows an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama programme into sports marketing company ISL.

In its judgement, the IOC Ethics Commission said the pair had placed themselves in conflict of interest situations in accepting money from ISL more than 10 years ago.

World football’s governing body FIFA was a client of ISL, which collapsed with debts of $300m (£192m) in 2001.

The IOC revealed that Diack and Hayatou claimed the payments did not constitute a bribe.

Hayatou, an IOC member since 2001, told the ethics panel that he received 100,000 French francs in cash from ISL in 1995, while Diack, who joined the IOC in 1999, told the panel he received three cash payments totalling $30,000 and 30,000 French francs after his house in Senegal was burned down in 1993 “for political reasons”.

At the time, Diack was a vice president of the IAAF, which was negotiating a marketing contract with ISL.