International Association of Athletics Federations

The litany that is FIFA’s ongoing corruption scandal continues to be one of the biggest investigative takedowns the world of sport has ever seen. Blatter has gone. Platini has gone. Bin Hammam is gone. In fact, almost everyone who has sat at FIFA’s executive top-table over the last decade has gone. Yet, for all the carnage that lies in the wake of the bans and suspensions imposed upon football’s governors across the world, it is worth remembering that these sanctions have been enforced in response to off-field misdemeanours. Not so with athletics.

When the massive scandal of state-sponsored doping and cover-ups in Russia finally erupted with full force in 2015, IAAF leaders acted as though blindsided.

Leaders of the World Anti-Doping Agency declared Russia’s anti-doping operation out of compliance Wednesday—a harsh, though expected blow to a country accused of widespread corruption throughout its sports.

The revelations of doping in world athletics by the Sunday Times in the UK and German broadcaster ARD/WDR portray a dark world similar to the troubles faced by professional cycling in recent years.