In the first Sunday Paper review of 2016, Joe Molloy along with freelance journalist Ewan MacKenna and Gavan Reilly from Today FM, began with a discussion about fresh problems with IAAF.
Joe Molloy opens the discussion by explaining that German journalist Hajo Seppelt conducted a documentary about doping in Russian athletics with the help of a whistleblower. WADA supported the findings but according to the Sunday Times, the IAAF have since issued Seppelt with three legal letters.
They have also warned him about making further comments.
Embarrassment for IAAF as warnings to whistleblower come to light, writes @DavidWalshST https://t.co/JP2QXnqlv5 pic.twitter.com/rubdW5dld5
— Sunday Times Sport (@ST_Sport) January 3, 2016
Responding to this story which David Walsh also covers in the Times, Ewan MacKenna said:
''He's (Seppelt) doing them a favour and they're threatening him and playing a bully game. When is enough is enough? The Olympics is essentially ruined and yet these people are standing over this.''
An equally bemused Gavan Reilly added about Seb Coe:
'His whole premise was that he didn't know about anything that was going on and that he was going to clean up the sport. But now, not only is he authorising legal threats against the one journalist who is doing a lot of this exposing, but he actually admits that he hasn't seen any of the work that the journalist has been doing.'
They also referred to articles exploring how television dictates soccer fixtures which dovetailed off to Ewan MacKenna remarking that in-depth articles with Premier League players are not as prevalent in the Sunday Paper as they were in the past.
Get @PatCrerand's reaction after #mufc picked up an important win against Swansea... https://t.co/jnNe2s6cxi
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 2, 2016
Gavan Reilly later said:
''There was a time when you opened up the sports pages and fully expected to be delving into the inner recesses of some athlete's mind and it goes back to this over-saturation (of coverage) of the Premier League.''
In the world of GAA, Ewan MacKenna picked out an interesting article by Michael Foley in the Sunday Times which demonstrates the charitable worth of the Provincial Leagues.
''We're going from the slickly marketed multibillions of the Premier League to the O'Byrne cup in Leinster and the Keogh Cup in Leinster which bring in about €500,000 a year and they are known as the accident tournaments because the money is distributed to various good causes including the floods this year. This is the GAA at it's best and this is the way it needs to market itself.''
Gavan Reilly resonated these comments by defending these competitions which are normally subjected to much criticism. Reilly says they offer players from weaker counties, the opportunity to play against stronger teams.
You can listen to the full Sunday Paper review here
