Sebastian Coe
Seb Coe has been backed to continue to lead the IAAF by Dick Pound Getty

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has released the second part of its independent commission's report into the doping scandal in athletics, concluding the council of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) "could not have been unaware of the extent of doping in athletics and the non-enforcement of applicable anti-doping rules".

In November 2015, Russia accepted an indefinite ban from competition after the first 350-page instalment of Wada's 11-month investigation into systemic doping revealed a widespread, deeply rooted culture of cheating that has gone on to rock the sport. The IAAF, now led by Lord Coe following his victory over Sergey Bubka in the 2015 election, has faced criticism over its perceived failure to act.

"The IAAF had inadequate governance processes in place to prevent the corruption that has occurred," the second report stated. "The IAAF had inadequate governance processes in place to enable/encourage whistleblowers to bring the corrupt practices to light. It was completely improper to have provided a list of Russian athletes suspected of doping to anyone outside the official anti-doping unit at the IAAF."

Track and field's governing body is also said to have been "insufficiently firm in dealing with a number of countries, including Russia, regarding compliance with whereabouts information requirements and the administration of unannounced out-of-competition tests".

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In his role as vice-president, Coe was a member of the IAAF council before succeeding Lamine Diack. Despite that, though, Pound has endorsed the two-time Olympic gold medallist to lead the organisation out of its current malaise.

"We have not descended to any individual athletes or sports official," he said at a press conference to accompany the release of his latest findings. "We have pointed out that the council could not have been unaware of the situation.

"It's a fabulous opportunity for the IAAF to seize the opportunity and move forward. I can't think of anyone better than Lord Coe to lead that."

He later added: "My assessment of Lord Coe is that if he knew there was corruption going on, he would have done something about it."