Since then, the IAAF has come in for heavy criticism, accused of helping cover up systematic doping in Russia.
But Dick Pound, whose report damns IAAF governance, insists he "can't think of anyone better" than Coe to lead it.
"I think it's a fabulous responsibility for the IAAF to seize this opportunity and, under strong leadership, to move forward," said Pound.
"There's an enormous amount of reputational recovery that needs to occur here and I can't think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that."
Pound's 89-page report concluded
that corruption within the IAAF "cannot be blamed on a small number of
miscreants".
It was also particularly scathing of
former IAAF president Lamine Diack, who stood down and was replaced by Coe
after 16 years in charge.
It concluded the Senegalese was
"responsible for organising and enabling the conspiracy and corruption
that took place in the IAAF".
The report also claimed the IAAF
Council, which included Coe, "could not have been unaware of the extent of
doping in athletics".
Coe, a former British MP, was
present at Pound's news conference, having insisted on Wednesday there had been
no cover-up.
He also said he had no intention of
standing down.
Following the report's publication,
Coe told BBC Sport that the IAAF would "redouble our efforts, to be clear
to people we are not in denial".
He re-emphasised: "My
responsibility is to absorb the lessons of the past and to shape the future.
The changes I am making will do that. The road back to trust is going to be a
long one."
Just
how damning is the report?
Diack is firmly in the line of fire.
The report also concluded he:
- appeared to have created a close inner circle which functioned as "an informal illegitimate governance structure" outside the IAAF;
- sanctioned and appeared to have had personal knowledge of the fraud and the extortion of athletes carried out by the actions of the illegitimate governance structure he put in place.
- told a lawyer he was "in a difficult position" over Russian athletes accused of doping before the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, that "could only be resolved by President Vladimir Putin of Russia with whom he had struck up a friendship".
This section of the report is
particularly scathing:
"The corruption that occurred
within the IAAF was not at the level of some foreign currency trader in a bank
carrying out unauthorised transactions, without the knowledge or permission of
the responsible bank officers.
"Here it started with the
president of the organisation. It involved the treasurer of the organisation.
It involved the personal counsel of the president, acting on instructions of
the president. It involved two of the sons of the president. It involved the
director of the medical and anti-doping department of the IAAF.
"The corruption was embedded in
the organisation. It cannot be ignored or dismissed as attributable to the odd
renegade acting on his own.
"The IAAF allowed the conduct
to occur and must accept its responsibility. Continued denial will simply make
it more difficult to make genuine progress."
A
new low for the IAAF?
It was already reeling from a number
of damaging revelations and was strongly criticised for its failure to tackle
doping.
In fact, it was only after Pound
accused Russia of systematic doping practises in the first part of his report
last November that the IAAF stepped in and banned Russian athletes from
competition.
Pound said: "The commission has
been troubled by the apparent unwillingness of the IAAF to acknowledge that the
conduct does indeed reflect on the IAAF and that it must assume its
responsibilities for what went wrong."
Worse could follow for the IAAF,
too. French police have issued a 'wanted' notice via Interpol for Papa Massata
Diack, the son of the former IAAF president Lamine, on charges of corruption
and money-laundering.
What
now for Coe?
On the day of his election in
August, Coe said suggestions his organisation was complicit in a doping scandal
were "just inaccurate".
Thursday's allegations call into
question that argument.
They also add to the pressure on a
man who has been a key figure within the IAAF since 2007, when he was made a
vice-president.
The report says Coe's right-hand man
Nick Davies, who stepped aside from his position as the
association's chief of staff last month, was "well aware of Russian
'skeletons' in the cupboard".
Former British MP Coe, who led
London's successful staging of the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, became IAAF
president last year.
In an IAAF statement hours after the
report was published, it said it "fully acknowledges and accepts the
extreme gravity of the commission's findings".
In the statement, Coe said he
"cannot change the past", but would "not repeat its
mistakes".
Can
he survive?
Coe has again come out out fighting,
as he did following part one of the Wada report - and he still has his backers.
There's Pound, for a start, as well as Brendan Foster, who said his close
friend was still the right man to lead the IAAF.
"He's hurting with all
this," said the former British middle-distance runner, prior to Thursday's
announcement. "But Seb Coe is determined like no-one else can be
determined. He's going to change this thing."
Michele Verroken, the former head of
anti-doping at UK Sport, is also backing Coe to lead the IAAF out of trouble.
"If not Seb, who?" she
asked. "Quite honestly, he is very capable of doing this. It's a matter of
whether he gets the support to do it."
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