Speaking of Nike:
US prosecutors encompass athletics in new corruption investigations
Andy Brown
Feb. 1, 2018
Sports Integrity Initiative
US prosecutors have issued subpoenas seeking information from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the US Olympic Committee (USOC) and FIFA related to the hosting of international sporting events, reports The New York Times. It is understood that the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York has requested documents, testimony and financial records dating back to 2013 in relation to the awarding of the IAAF World Championships to Doha in 2019 and Eugene, Oregon, in 2021.
There is much to investigate. French prosecutors have been examining allegations of corruption in athletics since August 2015. Its financial prosecutor, the Parquet National Financier (PNF) said that it opened ‘several investigations’ after being passed information by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 4 August 2015, which resulted in the arrest of former IAAF President Lamine Diack. ...
The 2021 IAAF World Championships were awarded to Eugene without a bidding process. ‘The proposal to award the IAAF’s premier competition to Eugene, bypassing the usual bidding process, was taken in response to what was seen as a unique strategic opportunity to host the IAAF World Championships for the first time in the USA’, read a 16 April 2015 IAAF statement. Eugene is the Oregon city where Nike was founded, leading to allegations that IAAF President Sebastian Coe lobbied former IAAF President Lamine Diack for Eugene to host the event due to his connections to the sportswear manufacturer, which sponsored him for 38 years. Coe has denied the allegations. ...
A Nike insider sent this link to my husband. They worked together at Nike during the 1980s (or, as Mr. M likes to say, "before Phil Knight made his first billion"). In a nutshell, Seb Coe - with substantial Nike connections, ensured that IAAF awarded the world championships to Eugene a/k/a Phil Knightville. The University of Oregon is spending a fortune remodeling the track stadium for the event. NBC reportedly also has poured a lot of money into it.
A more recent article from Sports Integrity Initiative describes how Nike made "honorarium" and "service fee" payments to Kenyan sports officials, who pocketed the money for their own purposes:
... The IAAF Ethics Board decision (PDF below & Twitter analysis here) details that:
• 16 payments totalling US$1.226 million were paid in ‘Honorariums’ and Service Fees by Nike to Athletics Kenya between December 2004 and December 2012. Such payments were deposited into a ‘Clearance Account’ and did not appear in Athletics Kenya’s financial statements;
• Cash withdrawals were made from the ‘Clearance Account’ for the personal benefit of Kiplagat, Okeyo and Kinyua;
• The payment of ‘Honorariums’ by Nike to Athletics Kenya officials predated its 2003 sponsorship agreement;
• In some cases, ‘Honorariums’ were paid directly by Nike into the bank accounts of the Defendants;
• Neither Nike or Athletics Kenya required details of how the ‘Honorariums’ were spent;
• Nike claimed that the ‘Honorariums’ were to cover the travel costs of officials, but investigators found that Athletics Kenya covered the travel costs of their officials;
• Nike also paid ‘Honorariums’ to one other organisation other than Athletics Kenya – the organisation was not named;
• The Defendants alleged that other Athletics Kenya officials received such ‘Honorariums’, but declined to provide details;
• A US$500,000 Nike payment to Athletics Kenya was posted into the Clearance Account and withdrawals relating to this payment were split. A US$200,000 ‘signing fee’ paid by Pamodzi Sports Consulting into the Clearance Account for Li-Ning (China) Sports Goods Ltd. to become Athletics Kenya’s exclusive marketing agent in Asia was shared amongst the defendants. A further US$200,000 was withdrawn to reimburse Pamodzi for the ‘signing fee’. Pamodzi is a marketing company run by Papa Massata Diack, the son of former IAAF President Lamine Diack who is subject to an Interpol arrest warrant, and was banned for life by the IAAF in January 2016. ...
The rest of that Aug. 31, 2018, article is
HERE. In other words, a longstanding practice of kickbacks.
Bottom line - and Mr. M and his insider friend, a former world class steeplechaster, will attest from personal observation - is that Nike is utterly corrupt. Their deal with Kaepernick is just par for the course.
