IAAF chief Sebastian Coe vows to look into London 2017 bribe allegations

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, last week insisted London had nothing to hide

Ed Warner said the IAAF had taken bribes from bidders for the 2017 World Championships (Getty)

IAAF president Lord Coe has promised to investigate claims of bribery in the bidding process for the 2017 World Championships in London.

The city was named as host for the championships in 2011 after beating off the challenge of the Qatari capital, Doha.

Ed Warner, the chairman of UK Athletics, last week insisted London had nothing to hide over its bid amid the IAAF scandal being investigated by French prosecutors.

However, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Sportsweek programme yesterday, Warner revealed that his team had agreed to spend $7.2m (£5.05m) to cover prize-money, having been warned they were unlikely to succeed if they did not, and that they were told “brown envelopes” were being handed to members of the IAAF council.

Warner said: “On the morning of the bid, council members of the IAAF and senior people at the IAAF were telling us that we were behind, and we were behind because the Qataris had promised to pay the $7.2m prize fund for the athlete prize-money, which otherwise the IAAF itself would have to pay.

“They were saying to us, ‘Look, you have got to match that offer’. We decided to play [that card] and we won, and we are told that was a decisive swing factor. I look back at it now and I think, ‘Did I have to make that money [available]? Have I had to spend $7.2m?’

“A very senior person in the IAAF said that they understood that members of the IAAF council were being called upstairs to a hotel suite to be given a brown envelope. My message was, ‘Just ignore that. We are London, we do it the British way’.”

When asked if he was aware of the claims, Coe said he was not, but promised to look into them. He said: “If anything comes out of that nature, then clearly all those bids will be called in.”