Paula Radcliffe wants professionalism enforced within IAAF
Last Updated: 26/11/15 11:44pm
Paula Radcliffe says the IAAF Federation should be "run like a business" and believes a new chief executive will help enforce professionalism.
On Thursday, IAAF president Lord Coe stepped down from his paid ambassador role with Nike following calls for him to terminate his involvement with the sporting brand because of a conflict of interests.
Radcliffe feels the IAAF members must ensure professionalism is enforced within the governing body to avoid a similar situation in the future.
"As athletics is now a professional sport - it has maybe slowly evolved from an amateur to professional sport - it needs to be run like a professional sport," Radcliffe told Sky Sports News HQ.
"I think the presidency and federation should be run like a business, with a CEO that is paid for the role."
However, Radcliffe also gave her backing to Coe and believes he is the right man to lead the sport forward.
"He is a very credible and very ethical person. His integrity is very strong and he knows everything he has done has been above board at every point. I think we can have faith in that," the 41-year-old added.
"There's a huge job of trying to modernise our sport and bringing it forward."
On Tuesday, Coe denied allegations he lobbied Lamine Diack to award the 2021 World Athletics Championships to Eugene.
Emails emerged suggesting Coe "reached out" to former IAAF president Diack before the event was handed to Eugene without a vote, despite interest from Swedish city Gothenburg.
Eugene is situated in Oregon - the state closely associated with American sports corporation Nike.
However, Coe refuted the allegations and insisted all of his interests are a matter of public record.
