IAAF President Sebastian Coe has held meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the country’s Minister of Education and Sports Lindita Nikolla at the start of a two-day visit to Tirana ©IAAF/Twitter

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe has held meetings with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and the country’s Minister of Education and Sports Lindita Nikolla at the start of a two-day visit to Tirana.

Coe was accompanied in Albania’s capital by European Athletics counterpart Svein-Arne Hansen, later meeting with the President of the Albanian National Olympic Committee, Viron Bezhani, and attending a welcome dinner hosted by the President of the Albanian Athletics Federation, Gjergj Ruli.

Discussions with Albania's leading politicians and sporting officials are said to have focused particularly on the future of athletics in the country and the improvement of facilities for the sport, both for elite athletes and at grass roots level, especially in schools. 

In October 2014, a number of Albanian athletes were selected to benefit from a special funding programme being run by the Olympic Committee of Albania in order to improve their chances of success at Rio 2016.

Six athletes, including 1500 metres 2013 Summer Universiade bronze medallist Luiza Gega and former world junior weightlifting champion Daniel Godelli, are profiting and receiving a monthly allowance of £626 ($901/€828) to help with qualification for Rio 2016.

Albania took part in their first Olympic Games at Munich 1972 and have competed in a further six Summer Olympics since Barcelona 1992.

Alpine skiers Erjon Tola and Suela Mehilli represented the country at its third Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, but the country has yet to win an Olympic medal of any sort to date.

IAAF President Sebastian Coe visited Albania with Svein-Arne Hansen, his counterpart at European Athletics ©Facebook
IAAF President Sebastian Coe visited Albania with Svein-Arne Hansen, his counterpart at European Athletics ©Facebook

Coe’s visit to Albania comes just days after he found himself at the centre of a row over whether or not he knew about bribes being offered during the bid process for the 2017 World Championships.

It has been reported that Coe had passed on rumours of "brown envelopes" during the campaign in 2011 when London were bidding against Qatar's capital Doha and he was the IAAF vice-president.

It has also been claimed that Coe was the "senior IAAF official" UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner was referring to when he claimed he had been told of allegations of impropriety by the Doha bid.

It has been further alleged by the Daily Mail that it had two witness accounts of Coe warning London 2017 officials of a possible bribes-for-votes plot in Monaco on the eve of the vote.

A spokesperson for Coe, however, has denied both allegations.