Thursday 26 November 2015 01:08, UK
The head of Gothenburg's bid to host the 2021 World Athletics Championships says IAAF President Lord Coe will investigate whether there was any wrongdoing involved in the awarding of the event to Eugene in Oregon.
Despite the interest from Gothenburg, Oregon was handed the event without a bidding process.
And Gothenburg 2021 boss Bjorn Eriksson claims Lord Coe called him on Wednesday morning and agreed that the correct procedure was not followed - but denied that he had personally lobbied in favour of the Eugene bid.
Pressure is mounting on Lord Coe amid allegations of a conflict of interest regarding his paid ambassadorial role with Nike, which is based in Oregon.
Asked on Sky Sports News HQ about his call from Coe, Eriksson said: "He called me and said that he will convince us by going through every detail in the accounts.
"He said, 'I agree that the procedure was not correct' but he claims he is not involved in this, others are.
"His purpose was to convince me that he will do his utmost to find out what actually is going on.
"He can do a lot of things, [he could have] independent people looking into the book-keeping and the figures and the contracts and what is happening.
"If everything is OK from his point of view, this could be cleared up. That is the normal thing you do if you are accused of something, you ask people to investigate."
If everything is OK from his point of view, this could be cleared up. That is the normal thing you do if you are accused of something, you ask people to investigate.
Sky Sports reporter Orla Chennaoui thinks Coe has work to do to silence his critics.
She said: "He is going into this situation trying to clean everything up but there are doubts and question marks over his own credibility,
"Given his ongoing association with Nike - he is still in an advisory role for which he is paid £100,000 a year - it is very difficult to argue that there is no conflict of interest.
"He said in the run-up to the election that he would quit that post. Why has he not done that yet?"
The team that ran the Eugene 2021 bid insist there was no impropriety whatsoever.
A statement read: "In relation to the bids from United States for the 2019 and 2021 IAAF World Championships, TrackTown USA stands behind the integrity of these candidatures, which have been made public.
"The Eugene bid adhered to all ethical standards for organizing and presenting our bid, and the decision to award the 2021 World Championships to Eugene was made by a vote of the IAAF Council.
"We look forward to hosting the 2021 World Championships and other major IAAF events in the United States as a way to build a stronger future for the sport of track & field and to celebrate and promote the great performances of our athletes."
