Corruption In athletics "Is Absolutely Worse" Than football's- Michael Johnson

Retired American Sprinter, Michael Johnson, has rated the corruption level in athletics higher than that of football, which has led to the ban of three senior IAAF officials for life for alleged doping breaches.

The widespread doping accusation has also led to the indefinite suspension of Russia from all athletics competitions.

Asked how the scandal facing athletics compared to that of Fifa, Johnson told the BBC: "If you think about the victims, it is absolutely worse."

The world football governing body is also in shambles following a series of damaging corruption claims that has also led to the ban of its president, Sepp Blatter, for eight years for breaching ethics rules, with his UEFA counterpart, Mitchel Platini, paying the same price as Blatter.

Johnson said that those athletes cheated out of medals by dopers "never had the opportunity to stand on the podium - and they should have".

However, he stopped short of backing an Olympic ban for Russian athletes later this year.

"Do you ban an entire country that ostensibly could include clean athletes, from participating in Rio?" asked the American, who still holds the world and Olympic records for the 400m.

"That is a very difficult decision to make."

Johnson was also cool on the idea, floated by chairman of UK Athletics Ed Warner, of resetting all world records so athletics could start afresh with a level playing field.

"It doesn't make sense to me how a reset of all the world records is going to deal with the issue of people cheating," Johnson said.

"It doesn't create a clean competition and that does not deter anyone from cheating."

But he does believe the International Association of Athletics Federations must be "completely restructured".

"It is the governing body - and the very structure of the governing body - that has allowed this type of corruption," he said.

A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency's independent commission was scathing of former IAAF president Lamine Diack, whose 16-year reign came to an end in August 2015 when he was replaced by Lord Coe.

It claimed that "corruption was embedded" in the organisation and said it could not be ignored or dismissed as attributable to "the odd renegade acting on his own".

It concluded: "The IAAF allowed the conduct to occur and must accept its responsibility."

Johnson said he hoped the crisis would be the catalyst for "a fresh look" at all the problems facing athletics and would help rebuild trust with fans. BBC