IAAF expels top aide to Sebastian Coe over hidden payment

Nick Davies, one of IAAF president Sebastian Coe’s closest aides, was expelled from world athletics’ governing body on Tuesday for concealing a €30,000 (HK$266,000) payment from disgraced ex-head Lamine Diack linked to the Russian doping scandal.

An International Association of Athletics Federations ethics board found the influential former deputy secretary general had lied to the inquiry over the funds.

Davies’ wife and IAAF project manager Jane Boulter-Davies and medical manager Pierre-Yves Garnier were both allowed to resume working for the world body, the former on a six-month probation period, after serving suspensions of six and three months respectively. Each was ordered to pay €2,500 in costs.

But the ethics board ordered that Davies, named by Coe as his chief of staff when he took over in August 2015, was “expelled from his position with the IAAF with immediate effect” and ordered to pay €5,000 in costs.

Davies’ downfall was “accepting a concealed remuneration” through Diack’s son Papa Massata Diack, lying about it to the ethics board and failing to disclose it to French judicial authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). Davies received €30,000, €5,000 paid into his joint bank account with Boulter-Davies, while €25,000 went into his own account, without his wife’s knowledge.

“Mr Davies has admitted misleading the investigation,” said an ethics board report.