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Scandals over the state sponsored doping by the Russian athletics team are still causing major problems to the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF), as the German sportswear giant is about to cease its sponsorship of the highest athletics governing body. This is quite a big hit for the IAAF, since Adidas is one of the major sponsors of the association, together with such major companies as Toyota and Canon.
As a reminder, Adidas has signed an 11 year sponsorship contract with the IAAF in November of 2008, and it was initially worth $33 million. However, due to changes in the international economic situation and cooperation between the two parties, the contract value has significantly changed for the IAAF, and the organization will actually be losing over $30 million just in the 5 years that were remaining of the contract. Therefore, such a scenario will suppose a serious financial hit for the IAAF.
The biggest catalyst for the desire to terminate the sponsorship contract has been the scandal around the PED use by the Russian athletics team. Interestingly, according to WADA reports, there have been multiple cases of state-sponsored doping use by the Russian athletes. What's more, according to further investigations carried out by the WADA, widespread corruption was taking place in the IAAF during the last years.
Obviously, Adidas representatives do not want to be associated with any doping scandals, proof of which is the fact that the sponsorship contract has foreseen this kind of situations. According to the document, the sportswear manufacturer has the right to unilaterally cease the cooperation with IAAF. Additionally, the German company's officials have claimed in multiple cases that “Adidas has a clear anti-doping policy in place.”
Therefore, the case was already closed after the Russian doping scandal took place, and all that was needed for a definitive ending of the contract was the latest corruption case involving the former IAAF president Lamine Diack and his son Papa Massata, both of whom are under investigation by the French police.
In spite of the fact that so far no official announcements have been made on the situation, none of the parties has given yet a definitive denial of the situation, which points to the confirmation of Adidas ending its relationship with the International Association of Athletic Federations.