IAAF close to securing Diamond League title sponsor 17/05/2010 |
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The IAAF will announce a title sponsor for the Diamond League within the next three weeks, according to its president Lamine Diack.
Speaking before the inaugural Diamond League meeting in Doha’s Qatar Sports Club stadium at the end of last week, Diack said: “I am sure within the coming days we will have a title sponsor for the Diamond League.”
He also suggested the 14-meeting format may be extended to 16 one-day events in the future and expanded to cover more regions of the world.
“My original idea was to have this athletics series going around the world from January to December,” he continued. “We have launched the Diamond League as a programme from May to September, and unlike the Golden League we now have meetings in Asia and the United States.
“We may grow to 16 meetings in the future and take it to other parts of the world if they want to come in and can meet the quality control criteria.”
Meanwhile, Diack denied reports that the IAAF is on the verge bankruptcy but admitted that the federation has to meet a number of challenges.
“I am optimistic about the future,” he added. “We are facing a number of challenges and we have to do our best to come out on top, but I think we are in a good situation.
“At the highest level, what happened in Beijing and Berlin indicated that our sport is still number one in the Olympic movement. As a sport, we need stars and in Usain Bolt we have one of the biggest stars, not just in athletics, but in all sports.”
Diack confirmed that the IAAF had been affected by the global financial crisis and has lost income from some broadcasting organisations, but revealed that its reserves at the end of 2009 were $79m, which represents close to two years’ operating expenses.
“The crisis is making everything difficult and affects everyone,” he said. “The dollar-Euro exchange has not been kind for operational costs and we have not been earning as much money on our reserves because the interest rates are so low.
“We will continue to invest in the development and promotion of our sport all over the world, but we will need to cut our expenses. We can’t spend more than our income, but we have a budget proposed by our finance committee which is then agreed by the council – and these groups are made up of representatives from every IAAF area.
“However, with close to two years in reserves and increased income from Olympic revenues and the Diamond League, the situation is challenging but far from being a disaster.”
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