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Athletics

Coe takes up role as Fifa watchdog

15/09/2006

Sebastian Coe has been surprisingly named as the chairman of Fifa's new independent watchdog to rid corruption out of football.

The chairman of London's 2012 Olympics will head the governing body's ethics committee in the wake of the Italian match fixing scandal.

Lord Coe will deal with cases in the future that breach Fifa rules as part of a new Code of Ethics.

The double Olympic champion said he was looking forward to cleaning up world football.

"I am delighted to have been selected for this important role. Inspiring young people into sport is a personal passion of mine," he said in a statement.

"To do this, we must protect and promote the ethics and morals of sport for future generations."

"My role as the chairman of London 2012, as an IAAF council member, as a member of the UK Athletics Council and as the chair of FIFA’s Ethics Committee will involve me in this area at the very highest level of sport."

Fifa president Sepp Blatter told a news conference in Zurich that Lord Coe was the right man to become the committee's first chairman.

"We have found an outstanding personality in the world of sport, a great personality in the Olympic movement," he said.

"Sebastian Coe will be the chairman of this committee. He has total integrity and will have total independence."

"To have someone from outside of football means he has no links with the football family and he has an ethical approach to sport. It is perhaps a surprise but it has been very well received."

The 50-year old has also been linked with the job as head of UK Athletics.

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