Sports
Corruption trial of Diack begins
Lamine Diack, the former head of athletics’ governing body, arrived in court in Paris yesterday to stand trial on charges of corruption, money laundering and breach of trust linked to a Russian doping scandal.
Prosecutors allege he solicited 3.45 million euros from athletes suspected of doping to cover up the allegations and allow them to continue competing, including in the 2012 London Olympics.
Wearing a dark grey suit, Diack, who turned 87 on Sunday, read through his files as he awaited the arrival of the judges.
He has previously denied wrongdoing. His lawyers have said the accusations are baseless.
Diack, from Senegal, led the governing International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), now renamed World Athletics, from 1999-2015 and was among the most influential men in the sport. He lives under house arrest in Paris and faces a jail sentence of up to 10 years if convicted.
The trial had been due to start in January but was postponed after new documents containing testimony from his son and co-defendant, Papa Massata Diack, were submitted to the court.
Senegal has refused to extradite Papa Massata, who worked as a marketing consultant for the IAAF. He also faces charges of money laundering, corruption and breach of trust, according to the indictment, and will be tried in absentia.
The other defendants are Habib Cisse, Diack’s former lawyer at the IAAF; Gabriel Dolle, who oversaw doping tests at the IAAF; and Russians Valentin Balakhnitchev and Alexei Melnikov, who were Russia’s athletics’ federation chief and head athletics coach respectively at the time of the alleged cover-up.
Balakhnitchev and Melnikov were not in court.
Investigators at the French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) describe a web of corruption in world athletics under Diack’s leadership.
In a separate case, French prosecutors are investigating alleged bribes related to the Olympics and World Athletics Championships.
They suspect Tokyo’s bidding committee bribed the Diacks in 2013 to secure votes, which the committee has denied.
Sebastian Coe, Diack’s successor, has undertaken to rebuild trust in athletics and has introduced changes to the sport’s governance. – Reuters
The curtains would be drawn on the Ghana Premier League tomorrow, with four teams locked in a fierce battle to avoid relegation.
Nations FC, Young Apostles, Swedru All Blacks, and Basake Holy Stars would hope to avoid joining Eleven Wonders and Hohoe United, who have already been relegated.
Nations FC must be at their absolute best to secure all three points against Karela United at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, while hoping results elsewhere go in their favour.
After suffering a blow last week with a home loss to Vision FC, Coach Stephen Frimpong Manso, who won the league last season with Bibiani Gold Stars, will be desperate to guide Nations to safety.
However, the task is daunting given Karela’s home form; they have lost only one game at the venue this season.
Another battlefield will be the Baba Yara Stadium, where Swedru All Blacks, would need to beat Asante Kotoko to survive.
For Kotoko’s interim coach, Hamza Obeng, signing off a troubled season with a win would offer some comfort to the ‘Porcupine faithful,’ who have been calling for a new direction for the club.
At the Wenchi Sports Stadium, it is a day of destiny for Young Apostles, who need nothing short of a win against Samartex FC to survive.
Meanwhile, Basake Holy Stars must secure all three points against Dreams FC at the Ampain AAK II Sports Arena to avoid any head-to-head complications that may arise later.
Elsewhere, defending champions Bibiani Gold Stars remain at home at Dun’s Park to welcome already relegated Eleven Wonders.
In other fixtures, Vision FC welcomes Aduana FC to the Nii Adjei Kraku II Sports Complex in Tema, and Berekum Chelsea faces Bechem United FC at Golden City Park. Finally, the Accra Sports Stadium will host newly crowned champions Medeama SC as they visit Accra Hearts of Oak.
BY RAYMOND ACKUMEY
Across the sports world, hosting a tournament or championship has become inseparable from the expectation of absolute victory.
Breaking this down, hosting a major sports tournament comes with a very clear mandate: that is to ‘host and win.’
To ‘host and win’ means a country must successfully organise the championship and climax it by emerging winners.
The concept carries specific cultural weight and comes with different interpretation depending on the context.
In major continental or global events, it refers to the phenomenon where the host nation uses home-ground advantage, local fan support, and familiarity with the climate and facilities to lift the trophy.
A few countries have been able to achieve this in the past but generally, winning a major championship just because one is a home country is incredibly difficult.
This is the reason why Ghana’s failure to win the 24th Africa Seniors Athletics Championship staged in Accra would be pardoned.
It will be preposterous, in fact laughable, for any athletics follower to have such expectation for Team Ghana considering the quality of opposition at the championship.
But one aspect of the ‘host and win’ concept Ghana Athletics and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the championship did not impress was organization at a certain point.
Coming few days after the World Relays championship in Botswana which was excellently staged, expectation was high about Ghana’s ability to also showcase a world class show.
That expectation was also fuelled by the fact that infrastructure was not a problem as Ghana hosted a successful athletics event just about three years ago- the Accra 2023 Africa Games at the same venue.
But it started on a negative note, with complains over food, equipment and other issues flying all over with bloggers making huge capital out of it.
Gladly, Ghana’s Minister for Sports and Recreation, Mr Kofi Adams shed some light on the organization of the event which he said had received wide commendation from many of the participating countries.
According to him, the feedback from some of the countries that have attended previous events suggests that the Accra edition was the best.
The minister explained that Ghana met all organizational protocols since beating Botswana to the bid two years ago and also went on to clarify that some of the reported challenges occurred because only 11 of the 49 participating countries completed the accreditation processes within the spelt out timeline.
Personally, I agree with the sports minister to a large extent. Events of this magnitude often comes with challenges but a country/LOC’s ability to address them go a long way to show a certain level of commitment to stage a great show.
Maybe, what event or sports organisers must take cognizance of at such events is the growing trend of the lack of proper arrangement for the media to carry out their duties.
It was heartbreaking to see journalists, expected to cover the opening of the event, hover around the peripherals just because their space was occupied by the fans.
This is a growing phenomenon across events of late. This is another major concern officialdom must give attention to but for Ghana Athletics, it was a great opportunity to learn to avoid repeats in future.
By Andrew Nortey
