Coe Warns Politicians Off Sport Ahead of LA Olympics
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- Sebastian Coe warned that politicians should be "kept on the bus" but kept away from "the steering wheel" of sport, speaking at the European championships about the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
- FIFA lifted US forward Folarin Balogun's red-card suspension after US President Donald Trump called FIFA President Gianni Infantino urging the reversal, drawing public criticism.
- Gianni Infantino is fighting to retain his post after a failed plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity, yet received backing Saturday from Andrew Giuliani, executive director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, who told critics "It's just politics."
- World Athletics has broadcast and sponsorship deals expiring in 2029 and is actively exploring private equity partnerships, with Coe noting "individual athletics federations at this very moment" are in such discussions.
- Sebastian Coe will personally appear at the Court of Arbitration for Sport to defend World Athletics' ban on Russian athletes, maintained despite the IOC lifting its Russian Olympic Committee suspension in July.
- Coe stressed that a sporting organisation's "resilience" to resist political phone calls is critical, drawing on his experience running the 2012 London Olympics where he worked with the British government.
Why it matters: Coe's warning carries weight because the Trump-to-Infantino phone call wasn't hypothetical—FIFA actually reversed the suspension, giving sport's governing bodies a fresh example of why they must push back. World Athletics faces two concrete near-term tests: deciding whether to follow FIFA's private equity path before 2029 broadcast deals expire, and defending its Russian athlete ban at CAS in a case that could determine whether individual federations or the IOC sets eligibility rules.
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