The 78-year-old Senegalese accepted that in 1993 he had received three cash payments totalling 52,680 Swiss francs from ISL but it was paid by his friend, company executive Jean-Marie Weber, who Diack claimed had felt sorry for him after his house burnt down in March of that year.

Diack denied that despite being a then IAAF vice-president he was involved in a marketing contract between ISL and the IAAF which was subsequently signed in June that year two months after the first two cash payments.

The Ethics Commission disputed the fact that he in his senior position could not have known about the negotiations but did take into account the traumatic effect the burning down of his house had had on him.

"I have noted the decision of the IOC Executive Board and I am glad that we can now bring this matter to a close," Diack told insidethegames in an emailed statement.

Diack had told insidethegames exclusively in August that he had spoken to the IOC Ethics Commission and did not expect to hear from them again, having satisfactorily explained to them what had happened.

But six days later they contacted him again with more questions.

"As I explained to the IOC Ethics Commission, I received gifts of cash in 1993 because my house was burned down by a political mob and I was left homeless," said Diack.

"This payment was made to me on a personal level by people who were my friends and at that time I was neither an IOC member nor President of the IAAF, and was certainly not involved in negotiations with ISL regarding marketing and TV matters.

"Indeed, on becoming acting President of the IAAF in late 1999, one of the first things I did was to have the IAAF directly handle the contract for TV rights in Europe and Africa rather than continue to allow ISL to do the job, so it is clear that they received no commercial advantages once I became IAAF President."

FIFA, meanwhile, appeared reluctant to offer much support to Issa Hayatou, their vice-president, after he was given a reprimand by the IOC Ethics Commission after receiving 100,000 French francs from ISL.

Hayatou, President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) since 1987 and an IOC member since 2001, claims he had accepted the money in 1995 to finance the 40th anniversary dinner of the continental organisation

Significantly, the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter (pictured with Hayatou), said last month that FIFA had inspected the CAF books and that the money had been properly accounted for.

The IOC's version of events begged to differ, placing Blatter in an awkward position just when he is trying to clean up world football's governing body.

The Ethics Commission discovered in fact that the documents had been drawn up "a long time after receipt of the funds" and "do not guarantee that these payments were indeed made into the CAF accounts.".

FIFA did not today repeat the same unequivocal support towards Hayatou that Blatter had before yesterday's decision.

"FIFA has taken note of the IOC's decision," they said in a statement emailed to insidethegames.

"FIFA cannot speculate on any potential future investigations and has no further comment to make at this stage."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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