Sebastian Coe to double IAAF anti-doping budget following athletics cheating scandal

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president Sebastian Coe has vowed to double the organisation's anti-doping budget in the wake of the cheating scandal currently gripping the sport. Coe said he will expand the current process of testing the top 10 athletes in each category to 20.

He also defended the decision to award the 2021 World Championships to the US city of Eugene without a bidding process. The town has ties with sportswear brand Nike through its TrackTown USA athletics centre.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Coe said: "Countries that are serial offenders will be sanctioned, athletes will be penalised financially. We've got to get back to a sport that has trust in every way we look.

"I can make the changes, I know how to do this and I will do it quite quickly, but I also concede that trust will take longer to return." He added: "I'll do whatever it takes to properly make sure we've got systems in place."

Coe recently stood down from his role as ambassador for Nike over allegation he lobbied for Eugene in Oregon to host the World Championships amid interest from the Swedish city of Gothenburg. French authorities have also opened an investigation into the decision to award Eugene with the competition to coincide with allegations of corruption against former IAAF president Lamine Diack.

"First, it's not without precedent, we've selected cities without bidding cycles before," said Coe. "Eugene was not put forward by the IAAF, it was put forward by US track and field and it won by 23 to 25 votes, as my council decided this was the best opportunity to get the athletics championships in United States, and every sport falling over themselves to get themselves into the largest sports market in the world."

He said: "[The conduct of the IAAF under Diack] is now a matter of police investigation and I can't maintain a running commentary on that. If that has happened, that will take its normal course and people will be prosecuted."

Despite the controversy surrounding IAAF, Coe said he does not believe the corruption is on the same scale as what occurred at Fifa. "I don't believe that, and I'm not remotely walking away from the seriousness of the situation," he said.

He added: "I have a very, very clear road map for what we need to do. If you're saying that too much power sat in the hands of too few people and the walls were too high, then you're right. I'm not under any illusion here, I'm president of an international federation which is under serious investigation."