It’s a sum in the millions
Serious theft at the World Athletics Federation
October 30, 2025 – 5:47 p.mReading time: 1 min.
For years, the World Athletics Association was cheated out of a large sum of money by its own employees. The fraud now has consequences.
A serious theft shocks the World Athletics Association. Over the years, two former employees and a former consultant are said to have defrauded World Athletics of a total of 1.5 million euros. The association has now made the incident public – and announced consequences.
As World Athletics announced, the illegal payments had been made over several years. One of the employees involved had already left the association before the fraud was discovered. The other two were fired following an internal investigation. The cases were reported to the authorities.
Sebastian Coe, president of the association, announced that everything would be done financially to ensure that the full severity of the law is applied. Coe said: “Too many organizations sweep incidents like this under the rug.” Employment relationships are often ended with little information, which means the perpetrators can continue their crimes elsewhere.
“We are not that kind of organization,” the 69-year-old made clear. Although the situation is “not pleasant,” it is crucial to do the right thing.